


Pre Season

by wakeupflawless



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bickering, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Light sexism, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Soccer AU, Teasing, boys vs girls, self indulgence at its finest, working out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:20:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27867541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakeupflawless/pseuds/wakeupflawless
Summary: It's the summer of Junior year and the sun is hot. But the tension between the captains of the male and female soccer teams is even hotter. Sick and tired of the rudeness of the men's team, Beth challenges them to a classic game of Boys vs Girls to put them in their place. Of course she gets way more than she bargained for.ORTwo idiots being idiotic.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 206
Kudos: 268





	1. Week 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another WIP you say? Please enjoy my self indulgent College Soccer AU Fic. All mistakes are mine.

_ Monday, July 31st _

The Michigan sun is unrelenting in August, often reaching ninety degrees in the afternoon. Most normal people stay inside, AC blasting and fans on high as they ride out the hottest part of the summer. 

But the  _ Southern Michigan University  _ female soccer team could be found practicing every day under the blazing rays. Pre season started July 31st, and the girls could kiss their summer of fun goodbye as they trained for the coming season. The previous year they had made it to the NCAA championship and had lost in a heartbreaking overtime game. This year they’re back, and ready to right some wrongs. 

Beth pushes a sweaty piece of hair away from her face as she waits in anticipation on the far left side of the field. The soccer ball soars through the air from the corner kick. Shouts from the defender and goalie fill the pitch, but Beth’s eyes zero in on the white and black ball. It hurtles toward her, over the head of her defender and Beth jumps. The side of her head connects with the ball and it flies out of bounds, just inches from the net. 

The coach’s whistle pierces the air. 

“Nice header, Marks! Adjust your positioning next time and you’ll have it.” 

Beth huffs and turns away, annoyed. She should have had it. After a second of moping she plasters on a fake smile and nods at the coach. Despite her “attitude problem”, Coach Jennings had named her lead captain of the team at the beginning of her Junior season. It didn’t come without repercussions, there were several Senior girls vying for the title, and Beth knew they had a group chat talking shit about her over the summer. 

She didn’t care. She’d earned her spot fair and square, completing assists nearly every game and scoring way more goals than what is expected of a left midfielder. 

It’s a thankless job - being a midfielder. They’re expected to play both offense and defense, running their asses off all game, while the strikers get all the glory. 

“Beth!” 

She can’t help but smile at the sight of her younger sister, running up to her, sweaty and completely out of breath. 

“What’s up?” 

“Is practice almost over?” Anniew whines, “I’m about to vomit or pass out! Or pass out in my own vomit!” 

Beth snorts. Annie is a freshman and it’s her first pre season. It’s clear the rest of the freshmen feel the same way, but are too timid to speak up. Annie clearly has no issue doing just that, especially since her older sister is the captain. 

Beth shoves her sister playfully. 

“C’mon. You can’t be tired already!” 

“We’ve been out here for  _ hours _ . Please go talk to Coach.” Annie pleads, puppy dog eyes going wide. 

Laughing, Beth agrees, and jogs over to Coach Jennings. The coach agrees, taking in the sore state of the underclassmen. She blows her whistle, long and hard, signaling the end of practice. The girls huddle up on the sidelines, gulping down their water and gatorade. 

“Good effort today, ladies. But we have a long way to go before our first game. Let’s head to the weight room now.” 

The underclassmen, including Annie, bite back groans. Beth rolls her eyes a bit. At least the weight room had air conditioning. 

Two freshmen are designated to haul in the giant water cooler. Somehow Annie managed to not get chosen, which isn’t at all surprising to Beth. 

The girls trudge off the pitch, teasing and joking with each other as they walk. Beth smiles. Even though the team has a couple catty players, they really are like family, especially on the field. The freshmen are fitting in quite nicely with Annie as their loud-mouthed ringleader, and Beth thinks a couple of them have a chance at starting. 

Before entering the giant athletics building, they all rummage through their bags and switch shoes and strip off their shin guards. Beth carefully unties her brand new  _ Adidas Copa _ cleats (she’d been saving all summer for them) and pulls on her blue gym sneakers. Some of the girls switch shirts, complimenting each other’s sports bras as they undress. 

Beth doesn’t bother changing. The less laundry the better. And the lower her water bill. 

The group makes their way toward the weight room, unaware of the ensuing battle about to begin. Beth is chatting with her friend Phoebe, leading the pack, and stops dead at the sight before her. 

The male soccer team has overrun the weightroom, rap music blasting over the speakers. And the schedule on the door  _ clearly  _ states that it’s been reserved by the female team at this time. 

Beth looks around, but Coach Jennings is nowhere in sight. Coach usually trusted Beth to lead the weight room workouts and must have retreated to her office. 

“Um, Beth,” Phoebe murmurs, “should we go get Coach?” 

The girls stand outside the open double doors awkwardly, awaiting Beth’s decision. Beth squares her shoulders. She’s lead captain and she’s going to act like it, dammit. 

Her team watches with baited breath as she steps into the testosterone filled gym. It smells badly of BO, sweat and weight polish. 

“Excuse me,” Beth says, loudly, crossing her arms over her chest. 

No one even glances her way. 

Beth panics for a moment, and looks back at the team. The girls nod in encouragement. 

She strides through the weightroom as confidently as possible, right up to the speaker. Grabbing the Aux cord, she yanks it out of the iPhone it’s connected to. 

The music abruptly shuts off, and two dozen pairs of eyes swivel toward her. 

“Sorry boys, but it’s our turn in the weightroom.” Beth says. 

It’s quiet for a moment, as the boys finally notice the female team standing in the hallway, waiting their turn. A few of the guys shift awkwardly and avert their gaze. She notices her ex, Dean, stop his routine on the rower and lower his head timidly. 

“Is that so?” 

The two dozen eyes swivel again, this time toward the deep voice coming from the other side of the room. A path clears instantly for him, and then Beth is face to face with the captain of the men’s team. 

If she wasn’t wearing flat sneakers, she wouldn’t have to crane her head back to meet his gaze. Unfortunately he stands half a foot taller than her, and Beth can’t help but stare at the giant eagle inked into his neck. 

Rio was all the girls could talk about her Freshman year - the tattooed newcomer to the men’s team. He’d tried to make a pass at her back then, but she’d been dating Dean, and had instantly shut him down. 

She’d been able to ignore him the past two years, especially once her and Dean broke up. Avoiding the men’s team like the plague had become her job, but now as captain she needed to nut up. 

Beth scoffs, pushing thoughts of the past away. “If you actually paid any attention to the schedule on the door you’d know that.” 

His onyx eyes scan her, starting from the sweaty roots of her hair down to her blue trainers. A small smirk plays on his lips, and Beth feels her cheeks heat up. 

“My bad, sweetheart,” he says, looking around, as if confused, “didn’t know you ladies could lift these weights.” 

They boys chuckle, while the girls glare.

“It’s our turn.” Beth repeats firmly. 

If looks could kill… 

“And we ain’t done yet.” Rio replies, all the playfulness evaporating from his voice. 

“Well that’s too bad. You little boys can run on home now. Just like you did after last year’s playoff game.” 

The girls burst into giggles, and Beth smiles triumphantly. The men’s team had lost in the first playoff game the year prior. It was a sore subject to say the least. 

Rio’s eyes manage to darken even further, and he takes a step toward Beth. She can’t help but gulp, unable to not notice his very naked chest and torso. Sweat drips down his abs, right along the light hair of his happy trail… 

“See something you like?” he murmurs, smirk back in place. He takes another step closer and leans in. A shiny stud in his nose gleams under the fluorescent lighting of the gym, “I promise it’s not little.” The last part is whispered, for her ears only. 

Beth’s eyes snap back to his and she jumps back, scoffing. 

“If you don’t leave now, I’m calling Coach.” 

“You go right ahead with that,” Rio says, turning away, giving her an unobstructed view of his toned back and the bar tattoos lining his arms. “In the meantime we’ll continue our workout.” 

Beth grits her teeth. The girls look worried now, and she knows she can’t go down without a fight. 

“Alright,” Beth says sweetly, taking her iPhone out of the waistband of her shorts and unlocking it. She clicks on the Spotify app, selects a Beyonce playlist, and plugs in the aux cord. “Guess we’ll have to share.” She calls over the music. 

The girls cheer as  _ Diva  _ blares through the speakers and rush into the weightroom. Some break out into dance. Rio pivots back toward her with a scowl and Beth deliberately uses her middle finger to push a piece of hair out of her face. 

It doesn’t take long for the men’s team to bail, especially once  _ thank u, next _ begins to play, sparking a chorus of female voices singing along. 

Beth gives Rio a little wave as the boys exit.

Now it’s her turn to smirk. 

xxx

_ Thursday, August 3rd  _

It’s undoubtedly the hottest day of the year, and only the 4th day of preseason. Coach is pushing them harder than ever before. Beth can’t remember a first week being so difficult. 

A freshman let a ball hit the ground from a goalie’s punt. The rule was that every ball should be trapped in the air - no bouncing permitted. The penalty was suicide sprints for the entire team.

The players groan as Coach Jennings shouts at them to line up on the goal post. A few of the girls glare at the shaking freshman, who’s already apologized three times for her incompetence. 

Beth keeps her game face on, trying to set a good example for her teammates, but she’s just as pissed as the rest of them.

The sprints go like this: first sprint to the 6 yard line then back to the goal post. Next to the 18 yard line, back to the goal post. The 50 yard line is next and back to the goal post. Then to add insult to injury, they have to run to the other side’s 18 yard line and back again, then the opposite’s 6 yard line, then finally finishing off with two 100 yard springs of the entire field. 

Beth leads the pack, she’s not particularly fast like her sister, but she has the best endurance of any girl on the team. She’d been training nonstop all summer and it shows. She easily finishes first, interlocking her hands behind her head to open her chest and control her breathing as she stops. Annie is one of the last to cross the line, and Beth shakes her head in amusement. If only her younger sister had agreed to train the past two months instead of flounce around town with her friends. 

The girls drag ass over to the water cooler, eager to gulp down as much as possible. 

Beth fills her jug halfway before bringing it to her lips and swallowing greedily. 

She nearly chokes.

The water is  _ warm _ .

“Who got the water this morning?” she yells at the exhausted group. The underclassmen shuffle, avoiding her gaze. “Did you forget to fill the cooler halfway with ice?” 

The same freshmen who let the ball drop on the pitch shakily steps forward. 

“Sorry, Beth. There was no ice in the icebox… and we couldn’t wait for it to make more or we’d be late to practice.” 

Beth takes a deep breath, taming her  _ attitude problem. _

“Yeah, Beth,” Annie pipes up, “I was with her. The chest was empty.” 

“That’s impossible!” Beth says, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

Annie kicks at the dirt, chewing on her bottom lip. Beth levels her with a stare that Annie is all too familiar with. 

“The last people in the ice room were freshmen from the boy’s team…” Annie mumbles, unable to look her sister in the eyes. 

“ _ What _ .”

Beth immediately turns towards the men’s practice field. 

Sure enough Rio and a group of guys are watching them. He waves over cheerfully, and then takes a long drink of water, never breaking eye contact with Beth. 

“That  _ son of a bitch,” _ Beth hisses. 

“Beth - don’t!” Phoebe reaches for her arm but Beth shakes her off, striding toward the men’s field, ignoring the sounds of protest from her teammates. Somewhere in the background she can hear Coach Jenning’s say ‘Where is Beth going?!’

She jogs over to the men’s pitch. As she gets closer the crowd of boys disperse, leaving only Rio and his shit-eating grin. 

“What’s up, mami?” 

Beth stops right in front of him, crossing her arms over her chest. She must look an absolute wreck - cheeks red from the sprints and face pink from sunburn. Her practice shirt is stained with sweat, she could probably wring it out like a wet rag at this point. But she’s so enraged she doesn’t give a second thought to her appearance. 

“Don’t call me that,” she bites out, “You took all the ice. We need ice, too.” 

Rio feigns shock. “Oh, but you wasn’t on the schedule for ice.” 

“There is no schedule for-” Beth starts, but then realizes he’s throwing her own words back in her face. She takes a deep breath and starts again. “That’s low, even for you.” 

Rio  _ tsks _ and scratches the back of his head. Her eyes are immediately drawn to the way his bicep flexes from the simple gesture, and she quickly looks away. 

“You ladies don’t look like you need it over there. Basically sleepwalkin’ through those lil drills.” 

The heat in Beth’s chest blossoms even further. They were doing  _ sprints _ , not  _ drills. _

“Let’s not compare records again, shall we?” she spits back. “You’d think the team that made it to the championship last year would need it more.” 

“ _ Lost  _ the championship,” Rio corrects with a smirk, “If memory serves.” 

“At least we made it,” she hisses. 

“Second place is just for first place losers.” 

“You  _ asshole- _ ”

They’re toe to toe now, Beth’s heaving chest just barely brushing his. Her hands are curled at her side in tight fists, and Rio’s eyes are so dark they might as well be pitch black. 

A whistle rings through the air, snapping them both back to reality. 

“Get back to your own field, Marks!” the men’s coach calls out. 

Beth takes a step away from Rio, poking him in the chest.

“This isn’t over, Jimenez.” 

“I look forward to it, Marks.” 

xxx 

_ Sunday, August 6th  _

Beth sighs as Annie’s phone rings and rings. It finally goes to voicemail, and she’s about to leave her younger sister a very detailed and scathing message, but then the robotic voice tells her the mailbox is full. 

Of course it is.

She sighs again and slips her phone in the pocket of her Lululemon leggings. Annie had promised to come to the first optional weightroom session of the season. 

Deciding to show leadership as captain, Beth had pitched the idea to Coach: optional Sunday morning workouts. This way Beth could pick out the players showing the most initiative and report her findings back to Coach Jennings. 

Beth checks her watch. It’s 6:05 and she’s the only one in the deserted weightroom. She mentally scolds herself. Who in their right mind would actually show up to a 6 am workout? 

She would, of course. Beth would do anything to show her commitment to the team. 

Since she’s here she might as well get in the scheduled workout.  _ I’ll reward myself with a breakfast sandwich and hazelnut latte from Einstein Bros,  _ she thinks to herself as she hops on the treadmill for her warmup. 

She sets the treadmill at an 8-minute mile pace, and with  _ Megan Thee Stallion  _ blasting in her airpods she starts to feel less disappointed in her team. 

Two miles is her typical warm up. A light sheen of sweat begins to collect at her forehead after the first mile, and she silently thanks the athletics department for finally installing AC in the soccer gym. Weight room workouts used to be horrific, a jarring mixture of stale heat and sweat. 

She presses the red stop button exactly sixteen minutes in, and slows to a jog as the treadmill winds down. Pressing a towel to her face, she turns to jump off, but instead lets out a small shriek at the sight before her. 

Rio is two treadmills down. She must not have heard him come in with how loud her music had been playing. 

He hasn’t started his machine yet, instead casually leaning against it’s railing and looking down at his phone. 

“Sorry, darlin’. Didn’t mean to startle you.” he drawls, staring at her chest which is only covered by her sports bra and thin tank top. 

“What are you doing here?” she scowls. 

“Workin’ out,” he shrugs. 

“You just happen to work out at the crack of dawn?” Beth sneers, crossing her arms over her chest, “Or did you see on the schedule that I’d reserved the room and decided to crash?” 

Rio barks out a laugh and gestures around the empty gym. 

“Where’s your team at? It’s just me and you, mami. Or did you reserve the whole place for yourself?”

Beth sputters, cheeks pinkening.  _ Damn it, Annie! Why didn’t you come?! _

“Just stay out of my way,” she demands. 

“Fine. Then you best keep your eyes to yourself.”

Beth rolls her eyes and opens her mouth, but any words die on her tongue as Rio strips off his shirt and tosses it on the ground. 

She whirls away, but not before seeing the triumphant smirk on his annoyingly handsome face. 

“Feel free to take yours off too.” 

Just as quickly as she’d turned away, she snaps her head back to him, outraged. But he’s already put in his own airpods and is purposefully ignoring her, fiddling with the settings on the treadmill. 

Beth takes a breath. One of those deep breaths she’d learned in yoga class a few years prior. She presses the volume button on her phone a few times and switches  _ Spotify  _ stations to a more soothing playlist. 

The workout she’d planned for today included mostly leg strength exercises and light core work. She hopped onto the leg extension machine and set the weight at 120 pounds. As she began her reps she couldn’t help but glance in the mirror in front of her - which gave her a perfect view of Rio running on the treadmill. 

She gulps. He didn’t have a mirror on his side of the gym, so there was no way he’d know she was peaking. 

Her eyes are drawn to the thick block tattoos on the backs of his arms. They move back and forth as he runs - on a much faster setting than she had. 

Turning her attention back to her own workout, she realizes she’s lost count of her reps. It was supposed to be ten sets of ten, but the sight of Rio’s muscular back had been too much of a distraction. 

Beth curses to herself, and decides to start over as a punishment. 

_ Stay focused, Marks!  _

She stares intently at her feet as she completes each rep, and pretends to ignore the sound of the treadmill slowing down behind her. 

Her legs burn by the time she finishes, and she focuses on the pain instead of the movement in the corner of her eye. 

He’s watching her. It’s as if his eyes are burning a hole in her back as she stretches. She spreads her legs and reaches to the floor. It’s a stretch she never does, and she’s irritated with herself for even trying to get his attention, but the soft exhale of air from across the room is reward enough. 

The rest of the workout goes rather smoothly. Rio doesn’t attempt to talk to her, but she can feel his eyes on her every so often. 

She might have snuck a few glances as well.

It’s not until she’s doing squats with a 25 pound dumbbell that they finally lock eyes in the mirror. He’d been blatantly staring at her ass when she’d looked up to her reflection. 

Rio smirks. 

Beth cracks.

“Will you  _ stop _ ?” she bites out, placing the dumbbell on the ground and turning to face him. 

“What?” he asks innocently.

Beth feels her blood boil.

“Stop staring at me!”

“Only if you stop starin’ at  _ me _ ,”

“I’m not,” Beth cries in exasperation, and resists the urge to stomp her foot. 

“You are,” he says simply, “‘S okay, I don’t mind.” 

Beth groans and reaches for her water and phone, sliding it into the pocket of her leggings. 

“You know what? I’m done with this game. Enjoy playing with yourself.” Beth sneers, stalking past him toward the door.

“Aw, don’t be like that, mami,” Rio replies mockingly, “It’s more fun if we play together.” 

Beth doesn’t even dignify him with a response, just slams the weight room door behind her. 


	2. Week 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth & the girls get even.

_ Wednesday August 9th _

By the second week of preseason, it isn’t just Beth that’s fed up. The girls on the team are sick of the taunting and rudeness of the men’s team. They consistently crash their weight room sessions, yell over at them while they practice and leer at the girls as they change shirts in between workouts. 

“This has to stop,” Phoebe says, surprising Beth. Usually, Phoebe is the quiet, passive one that doesn’t want to cause drama. “Why don’t we tell Jennings to talk to Coach Miller?”

They’re in the locker room after practice. Thankfully Coach Jennings had let them off early, due to a freshman nearly passing out from the heat. The men’s team had still been practicing as they trudged off the field. 

_ Aww are the girls too tired?!  _

One of the guys on the team, Eddie, had called out. Beth had thrown him a middle finger. 

“No,” Beth replies sternly, “We’re not gonna tattle tale because the boys are being mean to us. We just have to get even.” 

“How?” Phoebe asks desperately. 

“Yeah, how?” Annie pipes up, appearing as if out of nowhere. 

Beth ponders revenge for a moment. The boys were still out practicing, meaning the girls had an advantage if they wanted to pursue a sneak attack. She glanced around the locker room, taking in the scene before her. Most of the girls were still in the shower. Beth could hear their giggles and shrieks reverberating off the walls.

If the men’s locker room was the same layout as theirs, that would mean the showers would be in the very back… 

That’s when the idea struck.

“Would be awfully embarrassing to walk back to their dorms and apartments without any clothes.” Beth says with a wide grin. 

Annie and Phoebe’s mouths drop at the same time. 

“Beth,” Annie starts slowly, “You know I love you. But have you lost your mind?” 

“Listen, guys, it’s perfect. Dean told me freshman year that the guys all shower together as some sort of weird bonding thing,” Beth rolls her eyes.  _ No homo,  _ he’d added. “Probably to measure dicks or something, I don’t know. Anyway, it’s the perfect opportunity to take their stuff and run.” 

A few of the girls had trickled back into the main changing room from the showers, and upon seeing Annie and Phoebe’s stunned faces they moved closer. 

Beth waits until all her players are out of the shower and crowded around her. They look at her curiously, awaiting their captain’s orders. 

She repeats the plan, only to be met with more shocked expressions. Beth sighs, about to launch into an explanation about why it’s the perfect plan when Nancy cuts her off.

Nancy is a senior, and one of the girls who was very outspoken about Beth being named captain. 

“I like it,” Nancy states, coming to stand next to Beth in just her towel, “The guys’ team have been assholes for years. It’s time we give them a dose of their own medicine.” 

Beth can’t help but laugh in surprise as Nancy comes to her defence. Most of the girls seem on board, save for a couple shy freshmen. 

“If you don’t want to participate you don’t have to,” Beth says quickly. “But don’t stand in our way.” 

The girls begin to chat excitedly when Annie stands up on a bench and waves to get everyone’s attention. 

“And how are we going to get into the locker room?” Annie asks, “It’s always locked, even when they’re in there and we don’t even know who has the key!” 

The enthusiasm quickly dies, as the players become disappointed by the hurdle. 

Beth clears her throat.

“I know who has the key.” 

xxx 

Annie gives Beth a thumbs up as she scurries behind the bleachers, peaking through the slots to get a perfect view. 

Beth approaches the men’s field, watching as they complete corner kick drills. Luckily for Beth, their coach must have left Rio in charge because Miller is nowhere to be seen. 

She pretends to not notice Rio clocking her as she gets closer and makes a show of using the bottom of her shirt to wipe the sweat off her brow, then, taking a deep breath, she pulls her shirt off, leaving her in just her black sports bra. Again, she feigns tiredness, wiping her face once again with the bundled up shirt. 

She doesn’t even have to call Rio over to her. He shouts a command at his team and jogs to the sidelines.

_ Like taking candy from a baby. _

Beth immediately spots his soccer bag. The words  _ Captain  _ is inscribed in big letters on the front, the same as hers. She’d repeated that detail to Annie three times before Annie shoved her away in annoyance. 

“Come to see how a real team practices?” Rio asks. He’s already staring at her chest. So far the plan is going off without a hitch. Soon that team would be walking home naked.

But she can’t help but notice how  _ good  _ he looks, even all sweaty, in his grey practice shirt that says his last name in bold letters on the back. His muscular thighs show between his shorts and shin guards. She clocks a bead of sweat trickle down the wing of his tattoo. His small nose stud shines in the blazing afternoon sun. 

Beth manages to roll her eyes. “You got any real lefties on that team? Looking pretty pathetic on those corner kicks.” 

“Maybe. Are  _ those  _ real?” Rio asks, leering at her bra. 

“Maybe,” Beth replies coyly, and she takes great delight in the look of surprise on Rio’s face as she finally flirts back. “But my eyes are up here.” 

Rio gives her a sly smile, his dark eyes sliding back up to her face. 

“Watchu want, Elizabeth?” 

She remembers the first time they’d met freshman year preseason. He refused to call her Beth, despite her correcting him multiple times. Even then he irritated her, trying to flirt when she was clearly dating Dean. Not that the relationship had ended well. 

Beth tilts her head, indicating they move away from the field. She spies Annie out of the corner of her eye moving stealthily toward the bags on the bench. 

Rio nods, gesturing for her to lead the way. She turns, letting her ass sway a bit in her tight soccer shorts. 

They move behind the bleachers and out of sight, close to the spot Annie had been hiding. 

“Listen,” Beth begins, tucking away a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. She crosses her arms over her chest, pushing them up. It has the intended effect. “I need you to tell your guys to stop being such dicks. It’s affecting my team’s morale.” 

She makes her eyes wide; pleading. Dean had always said he could never say no to her baby blues, and she wonders if they would have the same effect on Rio. 

Apparently, they do, because his expression softens slightly, and his eyes flicker from her chest to her face.

“And what do I get if I do?” he asks, and that damn smirk is back.

Beth hums, pretending to contemplate. 

“Satisfaction that you are helping a fellow captain of the athletics department?” 

Rio barks out a laugh and shakes his head, looking down at her with those intense onyx eyes. She lets the piece of hair fall out again, and like a shark attracted to bait, Rio’s pinky finger is suddenly touching her cheek, pushing the strand away. 

Her body lights up at his touch, goosebumps erupting over her skin.  _ That  _ wasn’t part of the plan. Beth clears her throat, steadying herself. 

“How ‘bout a kiss?” Rio breathes, moving even closer. 

Beth’s mind goes fuzzy as she stares at his lips. They’re just inches from hers, all she’d have to do is lean in ever so slightly and then…

And then she sees Annie out of the corner of her eye, jerking her head frantically back toward the athletics building, a key looped around her finger. 

Rio’s eyes are half-closed, and he’s drawing closer when Beth roughly pushes his chest and steps back. 

“How about no,” she sneers, feeling like her old self again. She can’t believe she’d almost  _ kissed  _ him. 

Rio straightens up, obviously feeling whiplash by her sudden coldness, and she sees his face turn to stone within an instant. His lip curls and Beth smiles sweetly. 

“I’ll find my own way to boost team morale,” Beth says lightly, beginning to walk away, feeling Rio’s eyes burning a hole in her back. She spins around, “actually, I think I already know how!” 

xxx 

Beth peaks around the corner as her team waits eagerly yet quietly behind her. She watches Coach Miller give what sounds like a lecture to Rio while the men’s team waits for the locker room door to be unlocked. Rio looks downright pissed. He must have assumed he’d misplaced the key, and getting reamed out by his couch in front of the team wasn’t a good look. 

The girls wait with bated breath as Miller unlocks the door and the boys pile in, rowdy and rambunctious as ever despite a brutal practice. 

Once Miller is out of sight, Beth motions for the girls to wait. She tiptoes round the corner and gently presses her ear to the locker room door. The deep voices begin to fade as she assumes they’re making their way to the showers. She gently tugs on the door handle, but of course, it’s locked. 

With shaking hands, she slides the key into the bolt, turns it as gently as she can, and hears a soft  _ click.  _

Holding her breath, she pushes open the door a crack, and hears the sound of the loud showers in the back of the locker room. 

Over a dozen curious faces peer around the wall, and Beth gives them a thumbs up. They move quickly but silently, slipping one by one into the locker room. Annie is the last of the pack, pushing a collapsible laundry cart they had ‘borrowed’ from maintenance. The plan was to grab as many articles of clothing, throw them into the dolly and skedaddle as fast as possible. 

Dean’s comment from years prior holds true, as all the guys are in the shower together. Beth can hear their shouts and jokes over the sound of the water. She rolls her eyes.  _ Boys. _

The girls scatter, running to each corner of the locker room as silently as they can and grabbing piles of clothes, bags and shoes. Phoebe nearly gags at the smell of a pair of socks she’s holding between her fingers.

Nancy gasps softly, holding up a pair of pink briefs with yellow flowers on them. The girls break out into hysterical giggles, smothering the sound with their firsts. 

“Who do you think wears these?” Nancy whispers.

“Probably Mick,” Stacey, a defender, responds, which elicits another cascade of giggles. 

Beth checks her watch. It’s been 45 seconds, and knowing how disgusting boys are, they won’t be in the shower for long.

“Let’s hurry up!” she whisper-shouts. 

The laundry cart is filling up quickly with clothes and shoes. Annie nods at Beth and gestures for them to leave. 

The girls spill out of the locker room in near hysterics, Annie shoving the cart behind them. 

But Beth spots a pair of shoes and shorts underneath a locker bench, and she freezes when she sees the name above the locker. 

There’s  _ no way  _ she’s going to leave anything of  _ his  _ behind. 

She makes a break for it, bounding across the locker room as Annie watches with wide eyes, waiting by the door. 

With his items gathered against her chest, she spins around, only to see Rio coming out of the back showers. 

They both freeze as they lock eyes, and time seems to slow. 

He’s towelling off his face, dripping wet… and completely naked. 

She gulps. Rio was right. It’s  _ not  _ little. 

Beth feels her mouth go dry and her heart begins to race as Rio watches her in confusion, completely unashamed by his nudity. 

Time finally speeds up, and she sees him eyeing the clothes she has clutched in her hands, and then he looks over to see Annie waving at her to hurry up, laundry cart ready to go. 

“The fuck?” Is all he asks, taking a step closer while tying the towel securely around his waist. 

Beth spins on her heel and beelines toward the door, but not before lifting up her hand, locker room keys dangling from her fingertip. 

“You dropped these, captain.” 

She tosses them at him quickly, distracting him enough to run out the door, her prize clutched against her chest.

xxx 

Hysterical is an understatement. The girls scream in laughter as they push the laundry cart down the hall. 

“Where should we put it?!” Phoebe asks. 

“Our locker room,” Beth says with a wicked grin, “they can come negotiate for it.” 

Ten minutes later Beth is standing outside the locked women’s changing room door, casually inspecting her nails as Rio approaches in only a towel, much to Beth’s satisfaction. 

“Hey captain,” Beth says with a smirk, “you need something?”

Rio scowls, his handsome features twisting in anger. Something hot curls deep in Beth’s belly as he stares her down. She resists the urge to look away, meeting his gaze head-on. 

“What do you want?” he asks, getting straight to business.

“Hmm,” Beth pretends to ponder, tapping her foot lightly, “First off, an apology would be nice.” 

Rio scoffs. “For what?” 

“For being an asshole,” Beth replies sweetly.

His eyes flicker, turning a shade darker. He might be taller and stronger, but she refuses to let him intimidate her. She holds all the cards. 

“Yeah, I ain’t apologizin’ to you bitches,” he spits out. 

Beth’s unfazed and turns to leave. “Enjoy your walk home. You live in the soccer house, right? That’s a long way to go.” 

His hand shoots out, gripping her upper arm tightly, but not enough to hurt. He leans in close. 

“Give us our goddamn clothes back, Elizabeth.” he murmurs harshly.

She unsuccessfully tries to pry her arm away. 

“Apologize then.” 

He’s quiet, and the anger radiating off him shouldn’t turn her on the way it does. The fingers on her bare skin burn like fire, his large hand easily engulfing her arm.

She’s flush against him, eye level with his bare chest as he glares down. Apparently, she’s not the only one affected by their current position. She can feel him through his towel… 

“‘M sorry,” he murmurs darkly. 

“For what?” she goads, pressing even closer.

“For bein’ an asshole,” 

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she breathes, eyes glimmering. 

He releases her arm with a huff and takes a step back, shaking his head. 

“Aight. Give it up,” he nods toward the door. 

Beth makes her eyes go wide, feigning surprise. 

“Oh, but I’m not done yet.” 

The look in his eyes should make her drop dead.

xxx 

After making him apologize for each instance of assholery, and promising that his guys would be perfect gentlemen from then on, in front of her girls, Beth relented.

She watched with deep satisfaction as Rio and a couple towel-clad players pushed the laundry cart back to their own locker room. 

“That. Was.  _ Awesome _ .” Annie squeals as they walk home. 

Beth grins, nearly bouncing beside her younger sister. Annie lived in a dorm at the south end of campus, only a few blocks from Beth’s off-campus apartment. 

“I know, right?! God, Rio’s face was priceless,” Beth gloats, a sense of victory washing over her yet again. 

Annie slows, turning to stare at her sister. “Yeah… but are you sure there’s nothing going on between you two?”

Beth comes to a halt. “No!” 

“It kinda looked like you two were about to kiss earlier… when I was stealing the key from his bag.” Annie pries, her eyes shimmering. 

“I was just playing him,” Beth scoffs, waving her hand as she continues walking. 

“Mhm.” 

“I was!” 

Annie shakes her head in amusement and rolls her eyes. 

“Whatever you say, sis. But you two do some serious eye-fucking.” 

Beth scoffs. “Like you and that guy on the boys’ team don’t eye-fuck. What’s his name? Gilbert?” 

“It’s Gregg!” Annie exclaims, quickly turning pink as she sees the smirk on her older sister’s face and realizes her mistake. 

“Gregg,” Beth repeats, “I’m not blind, Annie. I’ve seen you talking with him!” 

“He lives in my dorm, of course, we talk,” Annie says in exasperation, throwing her hands in the air. “He’s actually a nice guy.” 

“The boys’ team is off-limits,” Beth shrieks, “how many times do I have to tell you?!” 

“Ugh, come on, Beth! They’re the only hot guys on campus right now. I can’t wait another three weeks for the rest of the boys to show up.” 

Beth rolls her eyes to the heavens. At this point in the summer, the only people in town were the athletes training for their respective seasons. The rest of the student body was still enjoying their summer at home. 

“Go after the basketball team or something. Anything  _ but  _ the soccer team,” Beth says sternly, pointing a finger in Annie’s face. 

“Basketball team?! I’m like, five feet tall! I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to get with one of them!” 

“Then the lacrosse team! I don’t know. Just stay away from the soccer guys.” 

Annie rolls her eyes. “Just because you and Dean crashed and burned doesn’t mean the rest of us are going to.” 

Both sisters go quiet, and Annie immediately regrets her words. Beth never spoke Dean’s name, and she avoided the hell out of him. 

He’d cheated on her when she was a freshman and he was a sophomore, right after she’d given him her virginity. 

“Whatever, Annie,” Beth bites out, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait, Beth-”

But Beth keeps walking toward downtown, soccer bag slung over her shoulder. It had been a long time since she and Dean were a couple, but his infidelity still stings, and she’s avoided dating ever since. Sure - there were a few random make-outs at parties, but Dean was still the only one she’d trusted with her body, and he’d betrayed that trust. 

Still, she can’t stop thinking about what Annie had said.  _ Are you sure there’s nothing going on between you two?  _ Beth’s not blind. Rio is hot. Hotter than he has any right to be. She’d never been into tattoos, had instantly regretted the stupid Chinese symbol she got inked on her hip over last year’s spring break. She still doesn’t know what it even means. But all Rio’s tattoos… God… she wouldn’t mind tracing them with her fingertips, her tongue…

She shakes herself.  _ Get a grip! _ There were rules in place for a reason. No dating anyone on the men’s team, it just complicates things. Plus, he’s a total asshole, and probably a fuckboy. Beth lets out a long breath as she waits for the street light to change, just a block away from her apartment. He doesn’t  _ actually  _ like her, he just enjoys getting a rise out of her. That’s all.

After convincing herself that her tension with Rio means nothing, she climbs into bed, pulls out her vibrator, and gets herself off. The image of an eagle in flight is the last thing she sees before she comes. 

xxx 

_ Friday, August 11th _

The worst of preseason is officially over. All the girls are relieved, and also riding a high that everyone has survived. The first two weeks of preseason were meant for conditioning, now that the real season is fast approaching, they’d be doing more scrimmaging and footwork drills. 

Beth’s walking off the field with her team, smiling ear to ear. She’s proud of the girls and thinks they have a real shot of winning the championship this year. 

“Yo, Elizabeth,” 

The small group she’s walking with comes to a halt as they watch Rio jog over. They raise their eyebrows at her, a silent question. Beth nods, and the girls continue toward the athletics building, but not before giving her major side-eye. 

“Yes?” she asks haughtily. She’s really not in the mood for his games. Perspiration lines her forehead and soaks through her practice shirt. All she wants is to take a shower and curl up in bed. 

He doesn’t look much better himself, the entire front of his own practice shirt is stained with sweat. 

“Me and the boys are havin’ a party at the soccer house tomorrow night. To celebrate the end of hell week. Was wonderin’ if you girls wanna come.” 

It’s actually hell  _ weeks _ , and Beth scoffs. Not a damn chance.

“Thanks but no thanks. We don’t party during preseason,” Beth replies, rolling her eyes, “especially not with your team.” 

“Oh yeah?” Rio pops an eyebrow playfully, “Heard your lil sister been partyin’ with my boy Gregg in the dorms.” 

Beth throws him a murderous look. Annie had sworn up and down that there was nothing going on between her and the fellow freshman on the men’s team, despite the rumors. 

“Well you heard wrong,” Beth spit back. 

Rio raises his hands in surrender. 

“If you change your mind… party starts at 10.” 

“We won’t be there.” 

“Aight.” 

They stare at each other in silence. Beth knows this is Rio’s way of extending the olive branch, but she refuses to take it. Since the stolen clothing incident two days ago the men’s team had been completely courteous, even offering to carry their water cooler to the field yesterday. 

Beth’s not falling for it. 

The sun beats brutally on their already sweaty backs, and Beth clears her throat.

“Anything else?” 

Rio shakes his head. 

“Nah, that’s it, captain.” 

“Okay, then.” 

Beth can’t help it, her lips pull into a small smile. Rio offers a sly smirk in return and takes a step forward.

“You was a beast in practice today. Saw you runnin’ circles round everyone,” he chuckles, and…  _ what?  _ Beth can’t help the flush rising from her chest to her cheeks, and it isn’t from the sun. 

“So you were watching me?” she demands, attempting to quash the butterflies in her stomach. 

“Hard not to, mami.”

They stare at each other once more, the silence thicker and hotter than the stale summer air. 

“Thanks,” she says shyly, averting her gaze. Then, gathering up the remaining fragments of her wits, “have fun at your party.” 

His eyes remain on her as she walks away, she can’t see it, but she just  _ knows _ . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so blown away by all your responses!!! Drop a comment if you love sweaty Rio ;)


	3. Week 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no way Beth is going to the party at the boy's soccer house... Right?

_ Saturday, August 12th  _

“And if I find out  _ any  _ of you went to the boy’s party…” 

“ _ We get it, Beth!  _ We’ll be benched for the first game,” Annie sighs dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air. 

Beth purses her lips and crosses her arms over her chest defensively. She scans the faces of the girls in the locker room. The freshmen all look thoroughly disappointed at the thought of missing out on their first college party, and some of the older girls roll their eyes. But Beth remains firm. 

“All I’m saying is we don’t need that kind of distraction. And do I even need to remind you about what assholes they are?” Beth says in exasperation. 

Phoebe sniffs. “But they’ve been so nice the past couple days. They carried our water and helped rack our weights-”

Beth shoots her best friend a withering look that immediately causes any further defense to die on Phoebe’s lips. 

“She’s right, Beth,” Stacey complains, “And we’ve barely had any male interaction this summer, we’ve been working so hard.” 

How did they all have such short memories?! Beth huffs, cheeks pinkening. 

“The rest of the school will be back from summer break in like, two weeks. Chill, Stacey!” Beth snaps.

It wasn’t exactly true that Beth had the power to bench a player. Only Coach Jennings had the final say, but the team didn’t know that. 

Some of the girls stalk out of the locker room, grumbling to themselves. Beth casts a stern glance to her younger sister, who looks like she’s ready to bolt at any moment. Annie waves innocently before running after her friends. 

When the locker room has cleared out Beth plops down onto a bench and buries her face in her hands. She knows for a fact that half the team is going to sneak out to the guy’s party, and there’s absolutely nothing she can do about it. 

And God, Rio is going to throw that in her face for the rest of the damn season. 

xxx 

It’s midnight when her phone buzzes. Beth stirs groggily, limbs sore and mind tired after the day’s practice. She blindly reaches for the phone, and in her haze of sleep accidentally knocks it to the floor. Beth groans, rolling over and half-hovering over the edge of the bed, patting the ground half-heartedly. 

A minute later the buzzing continues, persistent against the soft carpet of her bedroom. 

Beth groans again, swinging her legs over and onto the floor. She spies the glowing device and snatches it up, the screen reads  _ Annie. _

“Annie,” Beth moans, “What do you want?”

“Oh my god, she answered!” a voice rings out, that is definitely  _ not  _ Annie’s. There’s a loud thumping noise in the background that sounds like a bass. 

“Who is it?” Beth asks, wiping sleep from her eyes. 

“Um, hi Beth,” says a familiar voice, “It’s Mariel.” 

Beth’s mind is slow to catch up, but she recognizes the name as a freshman on the soccer team, and one of Annie’s new best friends.

“Mariel? What’s going on?” 

She already knows and is already rushing to put her shoes on. The sound of her beating heart even louder than the music in the background of the speaker. 

“Annie is really wasted, like, super drunk. She keeps falling over and we don’t know what to do,” Mariel cries into the phone, words slightly slurred. Beth feels bad for the poor girl, who obviously has never had to care for a drunk friend before. 

“It’s okay, Mariel.” Beth soothes, “You did the right thing by calling me. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Try to get Annie someplace quiet, and get some water.” 

She can hear Mariel shouting over the music to someone, and Beth holds her breath as she waits for a response. 

“Okay, we’re at the-”

“I know where you are,” Beth says darkly before ending the call. 

Dressing quickly, she throws her hair up in a ponytail, grabs her keys and hightails it out of the apartment. 

A dozen worst-case scenarios run through her head. Underage drinking was as common as going to class (sometimes even more so.) That wasn’t the problem - it was the possibility of getting a citation by local police. The University had a three strike policy - but the soccer team rules were different. If Annie is caught, she’d not only get a heavy fine but could potentially get kicked off the team. 

Not to mention that her little sister is alone in a house full of drunken, horny guys. Beth has had to fend off countless men at parties over the years. She’d even been roofied herself freshman year at a frat party, luckily Phoebe and other girls from the team were there to intervene. 

Her mind races. Annie was her responsibility, it had been that way since they were kids. Beth can’t bear the thought of her sister being hurt. 

Ten minutes later Beth is jogging up the front lawn of the men’s soccer house. Red solo cups litter the front yard along with half-burnt cigarettes that glow faintly in the moonlight. The grass is tall and unkempt. Beth wrinkles her nose. 

The music is loud, as expected, and Beth is somewhat surprised the town police haven’t shown up to shut the party down. Either way, Beth is on a mission, and that is to extract her little sister from this den of inebriation and testosterone. 

She pushes through the front door, banging into a couple of guys as she does. She recognizes them as players on the men’s team and shoots them a scowl as they sway in alarm. 

“Move.” she snarls. 

The house is packed. It seems word got out, and every student-athlete on campus had decided to crash. Weeks of pent up frustration, sweating and lack of access to the opposite sex was now culminating in the boy’s soccer house. As she passes through the foyer she spots Nancy (traitor!) making out with what looks like a hockey player. 

Beth rolls her eyes, equal parts annoyed and disgusted. Half the hockey team was missing teeth. 

She pushes through a throng of people cheering on a football player as he does a keg stand, a trickle of beer splashing on her shirt. 

Finally, she spots Stacey, who is draped over the lap of none other than  _ Mick _ . 

“Stacey!” Beth screeches, striding up to her friend. 

Stacey’s mouth parts in surprise, and her eyes widen in fear when she sees her captain stalking toward her. 

“Hiiiii Beth,” Stacey slurs sheepishly, pushing off Mick’s lap. 

“Ugh, just,  _ ew! _ ” Beth cries, gesturing wildly between Stacey and Mick.

Stacey blushes. “It’s not what it looks like!” Then - “Wait, why are you even here?” 

“I could ask you the same thing!” Beth feels a rush of satisfaction as Stacey’s cheeks turn even redder.

Stacey has the audacity to shrug and take a long drink from her cup. Beth groans in frustration. She’s about to demand where she can find Annie when a stray ping pong ball bounces into her foot. Over her shoulder, a group of guys yell for the ball back. Beth scowls, picks it up and flings it with all her might across the room. The guys playing beer pong groan and yell obscenities at her. 

“Where can I find Annie?” Beth demands, looking from Stacey to Mick. All Mick does is shrug, and takes a vape out of his pocket.

Stacey gasps, grabbing onto Beth’s shirt. 

“Oh my god, Beth. Annie is so drunk,” she says, eyes wide, “Thank God you’re here!” 

It takes everything in Beth’s power not to throttle her friend. 

“Yes, I know,” she says patiently, peeling Stacey’s fingers away, “Where is she?” 

“Ummmm,” Stacey chews her lip, thinking. “I think upstairs?” 

Heat rises in Beth’s chest. The house is huge, and not to mention packed. It was going to take a miracle to find the stairs. She feels panic begin to claw at her throat. If Annie fell into the wrong hands...

Beth hastily pats her friend's shoulder, shoots a glare at Mick, and takes off in pursuit of the stairs. She’d reprimand Stacey later about the company she had chosen to keep. 

The floor squelches and sticks to the bottom of her tennis shoes, slick with beer and jungle juice.  _ This is worse than a damn frat party _ , Beth thinks with disgust. 

Finally, blessedly, after five minutes of searching, she finds the stairs. Her cheeks are pink from the humidity of so many bodies packed together, and beads of sweat begin to form on her forehead. She wipes them away and makes a beeline for the first step - only to be stopped by a pimply-faced freshman from the men’s team. 

“You can’t go up here,” he shouts, voice cracking. 

Beth raises an eyebrow, scowling at the kid. 

“Fuck off,” she says, knocking him against the wall.

The freshman squawks in surprise as he trips over himself, his long limbs going every which way, and the red solo cup in his hand crashing to the floor.

“Hey! You bitch!” he calls, attempting to reach out and drag her down with him.

He almost succeeds, and Beth is bracing herself for the fall when a large set of hands firmly grasp her waist and hold her steady. 

She closes her eyes for a second, a familiar scent filling her nostrils, and she just  _ knows _ . Heart pounding in her chest, she looks up, a feeling of dread washing through her body as she meets his dark eyes. They flicker in amusement and she gulps, unable to pull herself out of his grip just yet. 

“Didn’t think you’d show, darlin’,” he grumbles in her ear, and Beth snaps back to reality, yanking herself away from him and onto the bottom step. She’s about to open her mouth when the freshman cuts her off.

“Sorry, Rio! She was trying to get up the stairs and-”

Rio’s eyes instantly darken a shade, frustration clouding his orbs, mouth forming into a thin line as he whips his attention toward his player. 

“And you thought you could put your hands on her?” he finishes darkly. 

“Wha-?” 

The kid can’t even finish his sentence or regain his balance, for that matter, when Rio is smacking him upside the head, causing him to fall down on his ass again. 

“Show some respect to the girl’s captain, dumbass.” 

Beth can’t help but gape at Rio as she watches him glare at the kid she now only knew as “dumbass” Then Rio is turning his attention back to her, his eyes appraising her from head to toe. 

She can’t help but blush. She’d rolled out of bed in only an oversized tank top and pair of panties - had thrown on the first pair of soccer shorts she could find and shuffled into an old bra. It wasn’t exactly a party look. 

Rio’s lips twitch, as if he’s reading her mind. 

“Don’t worry, mami. You still look damn good.” he smiles then, a large, lazy grin she’s not seen much of outside his usual smirk. 

Beth manages to roll her eyes. “I’m looking for my sister.” 

Rio nods, gesturing with his head up the stairs. 

“She’s upstairs with one of your girls. You never teach her how to hold her liquor?” 

Beth doesn’t respond, just steps over the freshman on the floor, who is still clutching his head, and muscles past Rio. 

She doesn’t even wait for Rio to follow, just darts up the dimly lit staircase, thankful as the pounding music begins to fade. 

His heavy footsteps thud behind her, and she hears him muffle out a curse. 

When she reaches the top there are four bedroom doors, a singular bathroom at the end of the hall, and then another set of stairs leading to the third floor. 

Beth immediately goes for the first room on her right, jiggling the locked door forcefully. 

“Hey!” She sees Mariel hurrying down the hallway from the bathroom, a cup of water in her hand. “Annie is in this room.” Mariel nods toward the second door on the left. 

Beth vaguely registers Rio saying her name, and easily ignores him as she bursts into the suggested bedroom. 

What she sees makes her blood run cold. 

Half hovering over Annie, caging her in, is a tall boy she immediately recognizes as her sister’s crush - Gregg. 

She hears her name being called again, but the blood is rushing in her ears so loud her eardrums might as well burst. Suddenly, Beth sees red, and she flies across the room toward her sister. 

“Get off her!” she shrieks. 

Gregg quickly turns to look at her with wide eyes, mouth hanging open in surprise. Somewhere in her rage-muddled mind, Beth realizes she must look quite a fright - like an avenging angel rising from hell ready to attack. 

And attack she does, because before she knows it her fist is smashing into Gregg’s face. Her hand explodes in pain, but she steadfastly ignores it, watching in satisfaction as Gregg crumples to the ground, clutching his nose in pain. 

“You fucking  _ asshole!”  _

Gregg raises his hands meekly in surrender as Beth winds up to hit him again, only this time her wrist is caught in an iron grip. 

“Elizabeth!” 

Rio’s voice cuts through the fog, and Beth feels her fury only ignite as he prevents her from another attack. 

“He was assaulting my sister,” Beth cries, struggling against Rio’s hold. “I’m gonna kill him!” 

Gregg moans in pain on the ground, and attempts to say something as blood pours from his nose into his mouth. Vaguely Beth can hear Mariel shrieking somewhere behind her. 

“He was tryin’ to  _ help _ her, Elizabeth,” Rio exclaims, yanking her away from Gregg to face him. “Look at me, he was helpin’ her this whole time. That’s it.” 

Beth scoffs, pushing at Rio, but it’s no use. 

“As if I believe that. I know how guys are, especially the freshmen. They’ll do anything to get their dick wet.” Beth spits. 

“He’s - he’s right Beth,” Mariel whispers, crying quietly in the corner. “Gregg helped me carry Annie up the stairs. He was just trying to get her to take another sip of water…” 

Mariel nods to the ground, where a red solo cup of clear, odorless liquid had spilled all over the carpet. 

Beth can feel her anger begin to subside, as she glances between Mariel, Annie, Gregg and the spilled water. Rio must feel it too because his grip on her wrists slackens. 

“Elizabeth,” Rio says again, “You really think I would let just any guy take your sister or any girl upstairs in  _ my  _ house?”

Beth grinds her teeth and manages to finally pull away from Rio’s grip. Rio must have posted that freshman to guard the stairs for a reason. It just hadn’t been clear at the time. 

“I - I didn’t know,” Beth says, looking helplessly at her sister. “How was I supposed to know? Your team hasn’t exactly been perfect gentlemen.” Beth spits, fire rising in her chest once more. 

Rio groans, and scrubs a hand down his face. 

“I thought we put all that behind us, darlin’! Thought we was square.” 

Gregg moans loudly, and Mariel rushes to his side with a bunch of tissues in her fist. She presses them to his nose, instructs him to tilt his head back…

Beth’s made a mistake. A bad one. She knows it, but she’s not going to back down. 

“We’re leaving,” she snarls. “And we don’t need your help.” 

They hadn’t realized it, but a small audience had formed in the doorway. The shocked looks on the faces of the party-goers would have been funny in any other situation. 

Luckily, four of Beth’s girls had shown up, and Beth snaps at them to hurry up and assist her. 

They hop to, fearful of being caught by the captain, but also eager to help Annie. 

Between the six of them, they manage to carry Annie out of the house and into an Uber XL that Nancy had the good sense to call. 

The car ride back to Beth’s apartment is silent, the girls hanging their heads in shame. 

“Beth, I-” Stacey begins.

“It’s fine,” Beth snaps, then, sighing, softens her tone. “It’s fine. I’m glad you called me. I was just really scared.” 

Beth looks down at Annie, who’s dirty blonde head is in her lap. She strokes Annie’s hair softly, is comforted by her sister’s slow, warm breaths against her thigh.

“What’s gonna happen now?” Mariel whispers, “You punched Gregg.” 

Beth rubs a tired hand over her face. 

“I don’t know,” she mutters. “Nothing good.” 

_ Sunday, August 13th  _

Sweat trickles down her forehead as she hauls herself up for one last rep on the pull-up bar. Beth’s biceps burn fiercely, and she welcomes the painful distraction, but it’s short-lived as memories from the night before flash through her mind. Once again her heart drops to her stomach as she remembers launching herself at Gregg. There’s a rumor going around that she actually broke his nose. 

Not only is she regretful, she’s downright mortified. She’d never been a violent person, but just the thought of someone hurting Annie was enough to throw her into a murderous rage. 

Sighing heavily, she drops from the pull-up bar and lands firmly on her feet. 

“How’s your hand, bruiser?”

Beth yelps, spinning around to come face to face with the last person she ever wanted to see. 

Of course, Rio is here in the weight room, once again, at six in the morning. 

For a guy who threw a rager the night before, he looks quite chipper and well-refreshed. And annoyingly handsome, as usual. 

“God, do you get off on sneaking up on people?” Beth sneers, wiping her face with a small hand towel. 

Rio smirks. “Just you.” 

Beth can barely meet his gaze. Embarrassment didn’t even come close to describe her current state. 

He takes her momentary lapse to confidently stride over until they’re nearly chest to chest. Picking up her wrist before she has a chance to react, Rio inspects her red knuckles. He chuckles lightly, running his thumb over the bruised skin. A jolt of electricity strikes through her body at the simple touch. 

“Can’t tuck your thumb in when you make a fist. Gotta keep it on the outside next time. Else you might break it.” he says casually. 

Beth’s momentarily stunned, but recovers quickly, yanking her hand away. 

“Thank you  _ so  _ much for your concern.” 

“I gotchu.” 

Beth clears her throat, glancing down at the ground again.

“How’s Gregg?”

Rio smirks again. “He’ll live. Had one hell of a bloody nose but it ain’t broken.” 

“Oh, good,” Beth says weakly, “that’s good.” 

“Mhm,” 

He reaches out again, this time to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She can’t help but take him in, being in such close proximity. His bottom lip is heavy and full, eyes dark and focused solely on her own. If it was any other person, any other situation… 

The door to the weight room bangs open, and Beth jumps nearly three feet in the air. 

“Jimenez!” 

It’s the men’s coach, his burly arms crossed over his chest. Next to him is Coach Jennings, who looks as equally pissed. 

“Yeah?” Rio asks, and Beth nearly snorts at his disrespectful tone. 

“My office, now. Marks, come with us too.” 

Beth gulps, nerves fraying. She takes in Coach Jennings' disappointed face. Her coach shakes her head in frustration, and motions for Beth to follow them.

The short trip down the hallway to the coaches offices seemingly takes forever. Beth’s feet feel as heavy as lead, and she twists her hands nervously. 

When they arrive at Coach Miller’s office, Jennings turns to Beth.

“Take a seat outside, Beth. We’ll call you in a few minutes,” she says it firmly, but gently. 

Beth nods and sinks down defeatedly in the plastic folding chair outside the coach’s office. She meets Rio’s eyes as he goes in. Unlike Beth, Rio is the epitome of cool and collected. He even throws a wink her way, which makes Beth slump down even further. 

He was going to tell the coaches what she’d done. She was going to be kicked off the team. This would be the final nail in the coffin of their rivalry. He’d won. 

Muffled voices come from behind the door, but Beth can’t make out a word. She leans her head back against the wall, fighting back tears. 

Five minutes later the door opens, followed by the shout of her name. Beth scurries into the office, heart racing. 

Coach Miller sits behind his desk, a sour expression on his face, while Jennings stands behind him, sporting a small frown.

Beth shakily takes a seat next to Rio, who offers her a small smirk. She can’t even muster up the strength to shoot him her normal death glare. 

“We heard some unsettling information about last night,” Coach Jennings began. “That you attacked one of the player’s on the men’s team.” 

Beth keeps her head down, cheeks reddening instantly. Why did word have to travel so damn fast? 

She’s about to grovel, to beg forgiveness but then - 

“Allegedly,” 

_ What? _ Beth whips her head around to Rio, who’s still leaning casually in his chair. His gaze never wavers from the two coaches in front of them.

“ _ Allegedly  _ attacked,” Rio corrects, “No one saw nothin’.” 

Beth’s jaw drops. 

“We heard you the first time, Jimenez,” Coach Miller says, rolling his eyes, “We’d like to hear Ms. Marks’ side of the story.” 

Rio finally turns to Beth, raising his eyebrows as if to say  _ Go on. _

Clearing her throat, Beth keeps her voice steady. 

“I didn’t attack anyone. I did go to the soccer house, but only to get my sister.” 

She sneaks a glance at Rio, who nods at her. 

Coach Miller lets out a deep sigh. “Are you sure that’s it? This is a very serious situation, Ms. Marks.” 

Beth gulps. “I understand that, but whoever made up that rumor is lying. Like Rio said, no one can confirm it.” 

Rio’s lips twitch, and Beth feels a rush of satisfaction. 

“You can question my guys,” Rio shrugs, “They’ll all tell you the same thing.” 

Miller’s eyes darken, and he leans forward threateningly. 

“Apparently there was video evidence. But it has since been lost. Know anything about that?” 

Rio shakes his head innocently. “Nope.” He even pops his  _ p _ . 

Coach Jennings finally breaks her silence, as well as the staring contest between the two men. 

“Even if you didn’t attack-”

“Allegedly _ ,’  _

“-  _ Allegedly  _ attack a men’s player,” Jennings shoots a glare at Rio, “we are both well aware of the, er,  _ tensions _ between your teams. As well as the little locker room incident the other week.” 

Beth bites her lip, widening her eyes as innocently as possible. Rio sits next to her, looking like the cat who ate the canary. 

“Coach Jennings,” Beth begins sweetly, “It was all just a misunderstanding-”

“Shut it, Marks,” Coach Miller growls, and Beth immediately quiets down. 

“As I was saying. We’ve been discussing the animosity between the men’s and women’s team. And we’ve come to the conclusion that Beth, you need to apologize. Not only for the locker room, but also for the blatant disrespect you and the girls have been showing Captain Jimenez’s team.” 

Now Beth’s cheeks are red for an entirely different reason. Filled with indignation, there might as well be smoke coming out of her ears. 

She refuses to look at Rio, who she can just imagine is wearing his trademark smirk and looking at her expectantly. 

“You can’t be serious!” she cries, nearly shooting out of her chair.

“Beth,” Coach Jennings sighs exasperatedly. “Just apologize and we can be done with all of this.” 

“No,” Beth says firmly, crossing her arms, “I have nothing to apologize for. If anything  _ he  _ should be apologizing for his team’s misogyny.” 

Unfortunately, she takes that moment to glance at Rio, who looks even more smug than she imagined. 

“Aw. c’mon, darlin’. It ain’t so hard,” he teases, eyes full of mirth, his frustratingly full lips pulling up into a smile. 

“Coach Jennings, this is totally unfair,” Beth exclaims in desperation, “You’ve seen how they shout at us, and disrespect us in the weight room.” 

“Beth, please,” Jennings wipes her hand down her face in frustration. She looks tired, like this is the last place she wants to be on a Sunday morning. Beth can relate. 

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

The foursome is quiet, the tension in the room thick enough to cut with a knife. Beth sits stubbornly, chin jutting out in defiance. 

Rio sighs in faux exasperation, “You lil girls are so sensitive, huh?” 

Beth feels a cord inside her breaking - probably her last thread of patience. 

“We’re not  _ little  _ and we’re  _ women _ , not  _ girls _ . I bet my team could wipe the floor with yours.” Beth says, fire in her blue eyes.

Rio scoffs and shakes his head in amusement.

“That right? I’d like to see y’all try, sweetheart.” 

“My name is  _ Beth _ ,” she shrieks, finally jumping to her feet and whirling around to face him, “And please remind me which team lost in the first round of playoffs? Your guys couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” 

“Beth!” Coach Jennings hisses. 

Beth ignores her. “Your team versus mine. This Friday. If you win I’ll apologize,” Beth looks Rio up and down, sneering with disdain, “But I doubt that will happen.” 

Rio’s jaw rocks, and he slowly rises from his seat, rolling his shoulders as he brings himself to his full height. Beth cranes her head back to meet his gaze head-on. Her heart thumps so loud in her chest she wouldn’t be surprised if everyone can hear it. 

Behind her she can hear the two coaches arguing in muffled voices.

Rio extends his hand, and Beth takes it in what she considers a death grip. Rio just smiles. 

“Deal.”    
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The gauntlet has been thrown!! WHO will be the victor?!


	4. The Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Girls v Boys. Who will prevail?

_ Wednesday August 16th _

“Let’s pick up the pace!” Beth shrieks, clapping her hands together. “I don’t want to see anyone slacking.” 

The girls groan and begrudgingly begin to work a little harder. The weight room is extra musty, seeing as the AC had sputtered and died the day before. While the team moaned and groaned, Beth saw it as an opportunity to condition their bodies for playing a full game in the heat on Friday. 

The game against the boys. 

The game against  _ Rio. _

The team looked at her like she had three heads when she announced her news to them in the locker room before practice on Monday. The silence had lasted a full minute before Annie managed to squeak out a weak  _ What?  _ After that the floodgates had opened. 

_ “We don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell!”  _

_ “They’re  _ guys _ , they’re faster and stronger it’s like.. Biology!”  _

_ “We’re gonna get crushed.” _

_ “Why would you do this to us, Beth?!”  _

Beth gave what she assumed was an inspirational speech about how all their hard work was going to pay off, that she had complete confidence in each and every girl. 

Clearly she needed to work on her public speaking, because the girls left the locker room even more disheartened than when they’d entered. 

The coaches of the men’s and women’s team had agreed wit h the plan eventually, hoping that some healthy competition would help squash some of the tensions between the teams. 

Beth highly doubts that.

She might have panicked, just a little bit, after walking out of the coach’s office. But the gauntlet had been thrown, and there wasn’t a damn chance that she was gonna back down. 

Beth’s brought back to the present by the timer on her phone blaring. 

“Switch stations,” she calls out to the team. 

The girls who are on the treadmills stumble off in exhaustion, and move over to the freeweight station, while the other half of the team rub their sore arms and stalk over to the treads. 

Beth herself walks with confidence to the other side of the gym, grabbing two fifteen pound dumbbells and beginning her reps of bicep curls. She shoots Annie a withering glare as Annie dejectedly grabs the five pound weights. Beth shakes her head in warning, and her sister groans before replacing them with ten pound weights instead. Beth nods in approval. 

She counts off out-loud reps of eight, and watches as the girls struggle to keep up with the pace, then instructs them into a round of burpees, followed by squats. 

By the end of the second round Beth herself is drenched in sweat, but she has to set a good example for the team, so she wipes her forehead, grimacing as a trickle of moisture makes its way into her eye, and continues on. 

Finally, she allows the girls on the floor a two minute recovery as she decides to check on the treadmill group. 

But she stops halfway when she spots Rio leaning casually against the doorway, watching the workout with interest. 

Beth can’t help herself, she makes a beeline for him.

“Can I help you?” she sneers, glancing him up and down in a way she hopes is distasteful. 

Rio’s eyes flash in amusement. “Yea, my lower back is killin’ me. A private massage could help.” 

Beth bites the inside of her cheek so hard she draws specks of blood. 

“Maybe the weights you’re lifting are too heavy,” she replies innocently, “there are plenty of two pound dumbbells over there. You might be more suited for those.” 

Rio grins at her, showing his full set of straight, white teeth. It’s not the reaction she’d been hoping for, and her innocent smile morphs into a seething glare. 

“So, you got these girl’s workin’, huh?” he asks, jerking his chin to the exhausted bunch, “Gotta say, mami, it’s all for nothin’,” 

“Is that right?” Beth hisses, refusing to meet his eyes, instead focusing on her sister, who was sprawled out on the floor as if she’d been hit by a bus. 

“Mhm. It’s a cute thought. But you know we’re faster and stronger. It’s just nature, darlin’.” 

It takes every ounce of patience to school her features to a neutral expression. 

“Keep talking shit. We’ll see what happens on Friday.” Beth says, finally fixing her light blue eyes on his dark ones. 

“Yea,” he murmurs, “we’ll see.” 

They stare at each other for a beat, and as the corner of Rio’s mouth ticks up, Beth clears her throat. 

“Anyway, this is a closed workout. So you need to leave and schedule your own time.” 

Rio nods in faux seriousness, dragging his gaze over her sweaty form lewdly. 

“Nahh,” he drawls, “We don’t need it. Gave my boys a few days off.” 

Beth grits her teeth, taking in the blatant insult. 

“Then get out. I don’t have time for your shit.” 

Rio pushes off the doorframe, giving her a mock-salute, and tossing her a wink. 

“See ya, captain.” 

Beth slams the door behind him. 

_ Friday August 18th _

Sleep evaded Beth nearly the entire night. Every time she began to drift her dreams included a Rio. A combination of his damn half smile, the bird inked on his neck, his ripped stomach…

Beth shakes her head as she trudges to the athletics building, soccer bag slung over her back. It’s still early, only eight in the morning, and the rest of the team won’t arrive until eleven, but Beth has some more game footage she wants to review. 

The sky is grey and overcast, and a sprinkle of rain cascades across her face. After over a month of no rain, the clouds had finally appeared the night before, descending over Central Michigan with a vengeance. The forecast called for a light drizzle in the morning, with a chance of heavier rain in the afternoon. 

Coach Jennings had texted Beth, asking if she wanted to postpone the game due to inclement weather. 

Not a chance in hell. 

She spends the morning rewinding and forwarding through old game tapes of the men’s team from last year, looking for openings and weaknesses. 

“Borrowing” the tapes wasn’t hard. She’d batted her eyelashes at the facility’s janitor, claiming Coach Jennings had asked her to retrieve some footage from the media room. 

Watching the tapes, it’s hard not to notice Rio. He stands tall in the field as the center striker (and  _ of course _ he’s a striker) easily directing the ball to the outside players, and all around dominating his area. 

In the particular game she’s reviewing, he scores a hatrick. Beth has to (grudgingly) admit she’s impressed. For all the shit he talks, he certainly backs it up. 

She scribbles down a few notes, just as she’d observed during practice, their left side is considerably weaker than the right. Beth can only discern one real leftie, but he’d graduated the prior year. 

Beth smirks to herself. All her girls on the left side of the field are true lefties, including Annie. They would have a major advantage there. 

She also takes note of her ex. Dean’s tall, but slow in the goal. This game the men’s team was lucky, every shot on the ground went wide, while every shot on the air was easily caught. 

_ “Shoot low and to the corner,” _ she marks down on her notepad. 

Time creeps away from her, and soon it’s nearly eleven. She jumps out of her seat, hurriedly stashing the game tapes in her backpack, and tiptoes out of the media room. 

A few girls are already in the locker room, strapping into their shin guards. They greet Beth cheerfully when she walks in. Beth’s pretty confident the girl’s are more happy that they’re about to get this game over with, and will soon go back to normal training. 

“Hey guys,” Beth says, “You ready?” 

Stacey and Mariel nod, plastering on half-hearted smiles. 

“We’re just nervous,” Stacey says weakly. 

Beth shakes her head. “Don’t be. The boys aren’t shit. I was just reviewing their footage from last year. There’s a reason they barely made it into the playoffs.” 

“But they’re so fast,” Stacey whines, staring down at her cleats. 

“I know,” Beth nods, “it just means we have to be positioned correctly. And no one is better at catching forwards offsides than you, Stace,” 

Stacey brightens up, straightening her shoulders. Beth looks to Mariel, Annie’s timid freshman friend. 

“And you, Mariel. You’ve got some amazing footwork. They definitely won’t be expecting that, especially from a freshman.” 

Mariel practically glows at the compliment, and ties her shoes with a smile on her face. 

Ten minutes later the rest of the team arrives. Excited chatter fills the locker room, and Beth can feel her anxiety growing as each minute passes. 

Coach Jennings enters the locker room, and looks around with a proud smile on her face.

“You ladies have worked so hard this week. I just want to let you know that whatever happens I’m proud of you. Now let’s get out there and warm up.” 

It’s a quarter til noon, and the girls are taking practice shots on the goal. The men’s team still hasn’t shown up. Some of the girls speculate that maybe they’re skipping, but Beth knows better. It’s a slight. It’s Rio’s way of showing them how much they don’t care about this game. 

Just as Beth predicted, the rambunctious group of men decide to grace them with their presence five minutes before kickoff. 

“Thought you pussied out, Jimenez,” Beth calls over to Rio, who’s sauntering across the field as if he owns it. 

She swallows, unused to saying foul language like that, but squares her shoulders. 

“You wish, sweetheart,” he calls back. 

Beth smirks, and motions for the girls to wrap up the practice drills. They jog over to their designated bench. Beth has to admit, they all look good in their light blue uniforms, and she feels a swell of pride at the sight of  _ Marks _ on the back of Annie’s jersey. The sisters had been playing soccer together for as long as she could remember. 

She glances over to the boys. The team is in their sleek white Away jerseys, since they’re playing on the female pitch. 

Coach Jennings gives them a quick but efficient pep talk before handing it over to Beth, who reminds the girls of the strengths and weaknesses of the men’s team. She turns to the defenders. 

“Stacey, Erin and Mel,” she starts, “Catching them offsides will be our best friend. They’re gonna be so eager to score early, they won’t notice how much you guys have pushed up.” 

“But what if the ref doesn’t call it?” Stacey chews on her bottom lip.

Beth levels her with a stern look. “Then run like hell.” 

The referee blows his whistle, and the girls huddle up, put their hands in the middle of the pack and on Beth’s count of three they cheer the team name before running out to take their positions. 

“Beth, look!” Annie shouts.

Beth follows her sister's finger, and lets out a squeal at the sight of her best friend and roommate, Ruby, sitting in the bleachers. She had a homemade sign in her hands. 

_ X Marks the Spot!  _

The poster depicts a ball soaring into a goal, the numbers  _ 6  _ and  _ 17  _ written beautifully around it. Her and Annie’s jersey numbers. The word “Marks” is drawn in a deep black color. 

Beth waves enthusiastically to Ruby, who waves back with as much vigor. The pair hadn’t seen each other since last semester, since Ruby went back home for the summer holidays. 

“GO BETH AND ANNIE!” Ruby shouts, waving her poster. Besides Ruby, there’s only a few other spectators in the stands, and they turn to glare at her. Ruby just shrugs and gives Beth a thumbs-up. 

Beth’s heart pounds in her chest as she dances on the balls of her feet on the far left side of the field, waiting to hear the piercing cry of the ref’s whistle. 

The girls are kicking off first, and she can tell the two forwards - Nancy and Phoebe - are vibrating with tension. They’d practiced the first play of the game about a hundred times. Phoebe looks over to Beth, and Beth gives her an encouraging smile. 

Everyone’s frozen in place, eyes directly on the ball. 

Then the whistle blows. 

Nancy wastes no time passing it to Phoebe, and the boys descend. Phoebe quickly does a drag back, and passes it back to Stacey. Stacey easily traps it, takes two dribbles, and boots the ball up the field to Beth, who’s running like the wind down the sidelines. 

Beth pushes past a male player - she doesn’t have time to look at his face - and traps the ball with her chest, easily bringing it down to her feet and maneuvering it past who she thinks is Eddie. 

Hoots from the guys follow as she nearly fakes him out of his shoes. But Beth ignores the background noise, instead focusing on finding Nancy, who’s supposed to be at the far corner of the goalpost. 

Right as Mick comes barreling up to her, Beth kicks the ball with as much force as she can muster toward Nancy. 

Nancy jumps for it and - and a new defender on the team, Stan, beats her to it. Coincidentally they’re the same height, but Stan heads the ball away before Nancy can get any part of her body on it. 

Beth curses under her breath, scrambling to get back and guard her man. 

Unfortunately Stan had headed it perfectly in Rio’s direction. Now Beth’s worst fear comes true. Rio has the ball, and is striding down the field with an easy confidence. His eyes never stray, he keeps them locked on the pitch, looking around for openings, and Beth can’t help but admire the way he gracefully moves with the ball. 

He makes a beautiful pass wide to the left side, right to the feet of Gregg. (Who still has a bandaid on his nose) 

Beth runs alongside her man - she’s pretty sure his name is Darin - and watches with gritted teeth as Stacey runs to defend Gregg. 

“C’mon Stacey,” she mutters. 

Stacey does exactly what Beth instructed her to do, force her striker to go left, making Gregg shift to his unnatural side. 

Unfortunately Gregg takes the opportunity to fake her out, careening left and then making a sharp right, causing Stacey to be two steps behind. 

Beth holds her breath as Gregg shoots from the eighteen yard line and…. And it soars over the crossbar. 

Beth lets out a sigh of relief. The guys give Gregg shit for shooting so high, shoving him around playfully. 

“You good, Bri?” Beth calls to their goalie, who looks as shaky as a newborn chihuahua. 

Bri gives Beth a weak thumbs up as the ref tosses Bri the ball. She places it on the six yard line, and raises her hand, indicating she’s going to make the kick.

To the goalie’s credit, Bri delivers a beautiful kick which almost reaches the fifty yard line. Unfortunately it falls to the wrong feet, and Beth watches again with dread as Rio let’s the ball hit his chest and drop to the ground. 

Clearly he’s decided to take matters into his own hands, and easily performs a neat step over trick, running past Beth’s helpless center midfielder. 

Beth dutifully guards her man on the sidelines, watching with a lump in her throat as Rio decides to take it all the way. 

She can’t take it anymore, and soars past her mark toward Rio, intent on stopping him, but it’s too late. He’s taken a beautiful shot on goal, and Beth grits her teeth as it soars into the top corner of the net. 

The refs whistle blows, and the guys hoot and holler, patting Rio on the back. 

Beth sees red. 

It’s just too  _ easy  _ for him, she realizes. There’s no way any of her girls can keep up with him. Even her best defenders. 

She motions for Coach Jennings to make a substitute, so she has a little time to talk to her team as they reset. 

“Listen,” she says hurriedly, “double team Rio if you have to. Just don’t let him get the ball.” 

The girls listening nod, and rush to take their designated place. 

Annie is substituted for Mariel, who looks absolutely relieved to get off the field. Beth nods at her sister, who is clearly flush with nervousness. She doesn’t miss the small smile Gregg gives her sister, and Beth clocks Annie giving him a shy wave. 

Beth rolls her eyes. 

The girls have a couple breaks. Stacey manages to get her defenders to trap the strikers offsides. If the penalty hadn’t been called it would have resulted in a goal for sure. Nancy gets a shot on goal but Dean easily blocks it, and Beth seethes. How many times had she told the girls to  _ shoot low? _

But she plasters a smile on her face, clapping for Nancy at her attempt. When she looks across the field she sees Rio with that damn smirk on his face, staring straight at her. She scowls in response, and keeps it moving. 

The first half is… it’s not a disaster, exactly. But it’s not good. Thanks to the wet conditions the boys shots on goal are off, but they manage to score two more goals before the half, Rio being responsible for another.

At halftime it’s three-nil. And the girls look absolutely defeated. 

“Can we call it a game?” Stacey groans as they greedily suck down their waters. 

“Shut up, Stacey!” Beth shrieks, surprising everyone on the team. The girls quiet down, and Beth clears her throat. “What I mean to say is… we can do this. Stace, you caught them offsides. It was awesome. Did you see how mad they were? And Nancy, you were so close to scoring. But Dean is fucking huge, and you  _ have  _ to shoot on the ground.”

Coach Jennings clears her throat disapprovingly at Beth’s language, but she carries on. 

“Three-zero isn’t bad. C’mon, how many expected it to be six-zero by now?” 

The girls nod, kicking at the wet dirt underneath their cleats. As if on cue, the sky opens up, and the rain begins to fall anew. 

A few of the players groan, wiping at their faces which are now a mixture of sweat and water. 

“This is a good thing,” Beth continues, “We can use this weather to our advantage. It’s about to get muddy and slippery. We’re shorter than them, closer to the ground. Our balance will be better. Keep your passes on the ground by all means possible. If it’s in the air, they’re gonna get it.” 

“But what about Rio?” Phoebe asks, “He’s so damn good.” 

Beth steals her nerves and squares her shoulders. 

“I’ll play center mid. Tamika, you’re on the left now. Leave Rio to me.” 

Tamika nods, absolutely relieved. She’s a damn good center midfielder, but no match for Rio. 

Beth’s aware that she stands half a foot shorter than him, but as she’d told the girls in the locker room, it’s all about positioning. 

“We got this,” Beth says fiercely, “If we can score at least one, maybe two goals. It doesn’t matter if we lose. It will show them up. And lets use their sexism against them. If we foul them, they can’t say anything, or else they look like wimps. But they can’t foul us.” 

The team begins to bounce on the balls of their feet, getting hype. There’s only five minutes left in halftime, and Beth nods to Annie, who presses a button on her phone. 

Blaring over the portable speaker is Megan Thee Stallion shouting “Real fuckin’ hot girl shit!” 

The girls jump up in excitement, while Coach Jennings rolls her eyes, unable to stop any of the profanity. 

“Let’s do this,” Beth says, “Hands in.” 

The ladies jog out to the field with a renewed sense of vigor, and the rain pours down harder than ever. It’s a welcome relief as the heat breaks somewhat, and Beth readjusts her wet ponytail. 

A moment before the ref blows his whistle her eyes lock with Rio, who’s looking at her new position on the field curiously. Beth smirks at him. 

_ Game on _ . 

Guarding Rio is damn near impossible, Beth soon discovers. The man moves as fast as the wind and quiet as a cat. But she holds her own, elbowing him  _ hard _ in the side as they both go up for a header, causing him to let out a choked gasp and lose his balance. Beth manages to head the ball towards Phoebe, who runs down the field.

Rio glares at her, holding his ribs, as Beth gives him a sweet smile. 

“If you wanted to play dirty all you had to do was ask, mami.” Rio says through gritted teeth. 

Beth leans in close, poking him in his sore ribs.

“You couldn’t handle it.” 

She takes off, leaving Rio in the dust. 

Phoebe has the ball in the corner, and is struggling to guard it from Mick. She manages to kick it off his shin, and the ball flies out of bounds, resulting in a female throw-in. Beth grins, impressed by Phoebe’s clever move. 

Phoebe wastes no time throwing the ball to Nancy, who shoulder checks Stan as hard as she can. The ref doesn’t call a penalty, and Beth runs into place as Nancy delivers a beautiful cross to the center of the field, right in front of the goal. 

Beth realizes with dread that she’s a couple steps too far out, and Dean is already coming off the goal line to pluck it out of thin air. 

Beth leaps forward, propelling herself off the ground toward the ball, and hears rather than feels the heavy  _ thud  _ of the ball as it hits the side of her head. She goes down hard in the mud, quickly looking up to watch the ball soar through the air, past Dean and into the net. 

Her first successful diving header. 

Feminine screeches fill the pitch, and Beth lets out a wild laugh from her spot on the ground. She’d scored. She’d scored in the most unbelievable way. In a flash she’s hauled up by her teammates, and is encircled in a huge bear hug. In the distance she can hear Ruby positively screaming with glee. 

Beth can’t remember the last time she’d grinned so hard, and Dean’s protests are music to her ears. The high is unlike anything Beth’s ever felt. 

“She was offsides!” he cries, gesturing wildly toward Beth, face red, “Come on, ref! Call the penalty!” 

“Shut up, man. She’s just better than you.” 

Beth snaps her head to the side to see Rio sauntering toward them, a half smile on his lips. His eyes are shining, and he looks completely proud. Definitely  _ not  _ what Beth’s expecting. 

Dean’s mouth opens and closes like a gaping fish out of water at Rio’s words, and he smacks the crossbar of the goalpost angrily. 

Suddenly Rio’s in front of her as the ref gets the ball to reset at the 50-yard line. 

“How we feelin’, champ?” he asks with a full grin. 

Beth can’t help it, she grins back.

He slowly reaches his big hand up to her face, and Beth doesn’t flinch as he wipes away a splotch of mud from her cheek. 

“Not bad for a girl, huh?” she teases. 

Rio laughs, and she watches the wings of his tattoo expand around his throat. Her eyes drift down from his face to his chest, and her heart jumps at the sight of his white jersey clinging to his pecs and abs, now nearly see-through from the pouring rain. 

Her jersey must be in a similar state, but the thought barely registers. 

“Fuckin’ dope.” he says, eyes trailing over her chest, which is not only soaking wet but stained with mud. 

The refs whistle pierces the air as he calls for them to get into place. With one last look, Rio jogs over to his side of the field. 

It’s three-to-one, and Beth is just as surprised as all the other girls. A renewed sense of hope has washed over the women, while the men grit their teeth in annoyance. 

The whistle blows again, and Rio and Gregg kick off. 

Fortunately the muddy conditions continue to hinder the men’s team as everyone slips and slides through the dirt. Mick even faceplants in the mud, resulting in hysterical laughter between both teams, then only moments later Phoebe does the same. 

The game has gotten  _ fun _ , Beth realizes. Her girls are playing dirty, just as she’d suggested, throwing elbows, sticking out their ankles, anything to hinder the progress of the boys. The referee was more of a formality than anything. 

Beth’s heart begins to thump as she crosses the ball over to Annie, a perfect pass that hits her sister right in stride. While Annie had the endurance of a middle aged man who smoked a pack a day, she could out sprint nearly every opponent with incredible bursts of speed that at best lasted 15 seconds. 

Riding the high of her older sister’s goal, Annie beelines down the field in a breakaway, sprinting past Eddie, who trips over his feet in the mud. The girls cheer her on, Beth being the loudest. 

Annie is about to reach the eighteen yard line and take a shot on goal… when she’s roughly slide-tackled from behind by Eddie. 

Beth gasps as she watches her sister careen into the ground with a yelp, her short limbs splaying out wildly. 

There are angry shouts from both sides. Eddie stands up and shrugs dramatically, as if he hadn’t done anything wrong. The ref blows his whistle, indicating a time-out for an injury. Beth and the team run over to Annie, who’s managed to sit up on the ground. 

“Are you okay?!” Beth gasps, rushing to her sister’s side and crouching down next to her. 

“Yeah,” Annie says, pouting, “my ankle hurts a bit but it’s not so bad. I can keep playing.” 

“Are you sure?” Beth asks in concern. The last thing she wants is for Annie to push herself during a scrimmage and ultimately miss out on the rest of the season. 

“I said yes! Jeez.” Annie mutters, uncomfortable with the amount of attention she was getting. 

Beth glances over, drawn by the commotion of some of the guys. Rio and Mick are berating Eddie. Eddie doesn’t seem remotely apologetic, waving his arms around saying that the girls had been playing just as dirty. 

Beth narrows her eyes, leaves her sister in the care of her team, and stalks over to the trio. 

“What was that about?” she spits at Eddie. 

Out of the corner of her eye she spots Rio rolling his eyes up to the sky in exasperation. 

“It’s called defending, sweetie,” Eddie replies sarcastically. 

Beth lets out a fake laugh. 

“Defending? It’s called a red card,  _ sweetie _ ,” she says, gesturing to the ref who had pulled the card out of his pocket. 

“That’s bullshit-”

Eddie begins to defend himself, only to be cut off by Rio grabbing the back of his jersey and dragging him toward the sidelines. 

“Another word and she’ll break your nose, man.” Rio says, letting go of his players shirt and shoving him away. 

As the situation on the field settles, the referee briefly speaks to both the coaches who nod in agreement. He declares to the players that the penalty would result in a free shot on goal. 

Annie visibly pales, looking over at Beth for support. 

“Do I have to take it?” Annie says weakly. 

“C’mere,” Beth says, taking Annie’s hand and pulling her away from the other players, “You got this. Just remember what I said.”

“Low and on the ground?” 

“Exactly. Shoot at his left side.” 

Annie nods and gives a small smile, squaring her shoulders and marching over to the ref, who gestures for her to shoot when she’s ready. 

The players line the eighteen yard line, waiting with baited breath as Annie sets herself up. 

Dean’s in the goal, looking smug as ever, clapping his hands together. 

“C’mon, kid,” he shouts, “give it your best shot.” 

His words drip with disdain, and Beth is tempted to throttle him in front of everyone, but she bites her lip and nods at her sister. 

Annie clears her throat and takes a few steps back, but before she shoots she looks at Beth.

“This one’s for you,” she says, before taking the shot. 

It’s low and hard, sliding through the mud with incredible speed, right to the left corner of the net. Dean’s too slow, and falls with a loud grunt as the ball skips past him. 

Annie stands rooted to the ground in shock, while the rest of the team descends on her. Beth nearly tackles her sister to the ground. The excitement is palpable as the girls scream in delight, jumping up and down in a circle around the smiling Annie. 

Meanwhile the guys are giving Dean shit for getting scored on by a girl not once but  _ twice.  _ Beth can’t help but embrace the deep satisfaction blossoming in her chest. Both Marks’ sisters had scored on Dean, and if that isn’t karma for his cheating, philandering ways then she’s not sure what is. 

There’s ten minutes left in the second half, and the girls are convinced they have a real chance of winning, most of all Beth. God, she’s itching to score another goal, tie the game and see that arrogant smirk of Rio’s disappear from his stupid face for good. 

The only flaw in her plan is that arrogant bastard himself. 

He has the ball at his feet, and Beth bends her knees a bit, bounces on her toes, waiting for Rio to make the first move. She keeps her eye on the ball, ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness, ready to throw another elbow if needed. 

Only she hadn’t expected him to quickly tap the ball through her open legs, using her wide stance to his advantage. 

Beth gasps, whirling around to catch him but he’s already gone, sprinting down the field past her defenders into a clear breakaway. 

He shoots, he scores. Like taking candy from a baby. 

Red faced and embarrassed, Beth’s gaze is as cold as ice watching Rio casually saunter back to the middle of the field. She feels her blood boil. They were  _ so close  _ to tying the game, to possibly  _ winning _ . But of course the cocky bastard just had to ruin everything. 

She doesn’t say a word to him, just spins on her heel and stalks back to her side of the field. The rest of the game flies by in the final minutes. The girls, demoralized, sigh as they walk off the pitch. 

Beth can’t stand to see her team this way, and attempts to offer up some words of encouragement but any words die on her tongue when she spots Rio’s arrogant half-smile, directed right at her. 

He swaggers up to her, jersey still clinging enticingly to his abs, rivulets of water dripping from his eyebrows down to his lips. The rain had slowed but it hadn’t made anyone less wet. 

“Good game, darlin’,” he says, sticking his hand out. 

Beth stares at his outstretched fingers and scowls. She harshly shoves him out of the way, shoulder checking him in the process. 

Rio laughs dryly from behind her, and Beth refuses to look back.

“Oh baby, what you think this is? Little League?” he calls out.

Beth grinds her teeth, fists balled at her side as she approaches her team. 

They stare at her in silence, some hanging their heads low. Suddenly, she knows what they all need. 

“So,” Beth starts, finally breaking the silence, “Lucky’s tonight?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO... Lucky's next chapter?
> 
> I'd also like to point out that this is the closest thing to a slowburn I've ever written and it's killing me LOL. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
> 
> All mistakes are mine.


	5. Post Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls go to Lucky's, but guess who decides to crash?

_ Friday, August 18th _

The team has a strict “no drinking during pre-season” rule in place. It’s been that way since Beth joined the team as a freshman. Of course, there were always a few rebels, but the majority of the players stuck to the bylaw.

Except this year, the rule hadn’t just been broken, it had been decimated. 

Beth pushes this thought to the back of her mind as she gets ready with Ruby, Annie, and a handful of girls at her apartment. 

While she’s ecstatic to have her roommate back, her excitement is dampened due to the fact that they’d lost to the boys. 

“You guys played amazing,” Ruby had gushed as they trudged back to the apartment in the drizzling rain. “That header was insane, and so was Annie’s goal! You should have  _ seen  _ the look on Dean’s face…” 

Ruby rambled on enthusiastically, recounting nearly every play. 

“Also, who’s that new guy on the team…?” she’d asked cautiously, but Beth hadn’t heard her, was replaying every moment in her head, thinking about how the team could improve going forward. 

Beth takes a long swig of her mixed drink, grimacing as it goes down. It’s Stacey’s famous knock-out punch, some concoction of Svedka, Bacardi and fruit juice. Beth’s pretty sure Stacey snuck in some moonshine as well, because she’s almost done with her first drink and is already tipsy. 

“Sis, you’re not seriously going to wear that,” Annie cries, gesturing up and down at Beth’s casual attire - black leggings and long V-neck top. 

“What?” Beth asks defensively, “Lucky’s is a dive bar. I’m practically overdressed.”

“Ughh come  _ on _ ,” Annie groans, while the other girls nod around her, “Let’s get dressed up cute and have some fun. I think we deserve it.” 

Beth can’t even mutter out a protest before she’s being whisked away by her friends to the bedroom. The girls raid her closet, throwing dresses, skirts and tops over their shoulders at her. 

“Do you own anything other than soccer shorts and leggings?” Stacey teases.

“ _ Yes _ ,” Beth snaps, crossing her arms. 

Annie pulls out a distressed denim skirt that Beth had impulsively bought the previous year at a pop-up shop, but never got the chance to wear since she spent most of the summer in workout gear. 

“This is cute,” Annie announces, shoving the skirt into Beth’s chest. “Denim skirts are so 90s but they’re really making a comeback.” 

Beth rolls her eyes, but sheds her leggings and pulls on the skirt anyway. It’s a perfect fit, and Ruby nods approvingly. 

The next article of clothing that’s flung at her is a simple black tank top that’s always been too tight of a stretch around her chest. When Beth begins to protest she’s bullied into putting it on anyway. 

Matched with a pair of short heeled boots, Beth does feel exponentially cuter. The tank top rides up a bit on her stomach, and she desperately pulls it down, which only serves to show off her boobs even more. 

“Daaaaamn,” Stacey whistles. “One sexy captain comin’ through.” 

Beth rolls her eyes again, but can’t help but a blush a bit. She can’t remember the last time she’d dressed up. 

“Now for makeup,” Ruby announces. 

She’s shuffled into the bathroom, where all of her makeup products are studied and critiqued. Of course, Stacey had brought an entire makeup bag filled to the brim.

Then the girls get to work. 

xxx 

During the summer Lucky’s is the most popular bar. Summer is the one time of the year where locals and students mingled freely.

For the girls under 21, all it takes is a flirty smile, a touch of an arm, and twenty bucks slipped into the bouncer's hand to be let in. Beth had an early birthday over the summer and watched in amusement as the younger girls weaselled their way inside. 

The entire team had shown up, including the shy freshmen, who looked around the seedy bar with wide eyes. 

The bartender immediately takes note of the huge group of toned, tanned and athletic-looking girls, all dressed in their cutest summer outfits. 

Their first round of shots is free after some smooth-talking from Annie, who tells the bartender the woeful story about their game against the men’s team. The bartender barks out a laugh and passes out tequila shots. 

The girls cheer, and down their shots in one go. Beth laughs as Mariel immediately covers her mouth with her palm, choking down the bitter liquid.

“I’ve never had tequila before,” she admits sheepishly, sending the entire team into a hysterical fit of giggles. 

It doesn’t take long for the local men in the bar to start making moves. The girls make a game out of how many free drinks they can get, and within an hour they’re all well past the point of tipsy. 

With the music cranked up at full volume, playing hit after hit, the bar soon turns into a club, with the girls dancing all over the floor and tables. Beth nearly cries from laughter when Stacey attempts to climb on top of the bar, but immediately trips and falls onto the dirty ground. 

“Spring break!” Stacey screams from her spot on the floor. 

The girls are finally letting loose, including Beth, who’s grateful that Coach Jennings gave them the weekend off (mostly out of pity.) 

It’s all fun and games until the door to the bar bangs open, and the men’s team walks in. 

Beth halts like a deer in headlights and watches with horror as her sworn enemies descend upon their sanctuary. 

“Who the fuck told them?” Beth cries out, zeroing in on each girl in the group.

Annie purposely avoids her gaze.

“Annie?!”

Annie throws her arms up in defeat. “I might’ve snapchatted Gregg a picture of our drinks… and tagged the location.” 

“I  _ told you  _ not to post anything on social media! Or tell any of the boys we were coming here!” 

“Don’t look at just me,” Annie shrieks, pointing at Stacey, “ _ she  _ DM’d Mick on Instagram!” 

Stacey’s so bombed by that point she just shrugs, grinning stupidly. 

“Did someone say, ‘Mick’?” Stacey calls out.

Beth groans. This is  _ not  _ how she expected the night to go, especially after giving a long lecture about the importance of  _ discretion. _ Before she can say anything else her sister makes a beeline for Gregg and gives him a huge hug. 

Beth wants to vomit. 

And standing tall and confident among the group of guys is Rio because of  _ course _ , he’s here too.

Suddenly Beth is hit with the urge to take a shot of something much,  _ much  _ stronger. She muscles her way to the bar, eyeing the sole bartender as he scrambles to fulfil all the new drink orders. 

She taps her nails on the bar impatiently, sighing in exasperation. 

_ Why did they have to come and ruin everything?! _

Although it seems as if Beth is the only one with this opinion, seeing as all her girls are animatedly chatting with the guys. She spots Stacey clinging onto Mick, Annie holding Gregg’s hand and... She squints… and is that  _ Ruby  _ huddled up close to  _ Stan?!  _ Traitor!

“Hey sweetie,” a deep voice says in her ear, causing Beth to recoil. “Buy you a drink?” 

She turns with a grimace on her face to take in her new company. He’s an older guy, definitely  _ not  _ a student, with red cheeks and stringy black hair. A townie, for sure. Beth resists the urge to roll her eyes. The gall of middle-aged white men. 

“No,” she says firmly, but with a polite smile, and turns away. 

“Don’t be rude, bitch-” he starts, but Beth is fed up with men in general at this point, so she whirls on him.

“Fuck off!” 

The man’s eyes widen in shock as if he’d never been told off by a woman before. But then he’s reaching for her, and Beth’s frozen in place until another, larger, hand is grabbing the man’s arm and yanking him away.

“She said fuck off,” Rio says, glaring down at the townie. And although Rio has to be fifteen years this guy’s junior, he’s still intimidating, standing over six feet with a giant eagle tat on his throat, his arm muscle corded tight around the man’s skin. “So fuck off.” 

There’s a low grumble about “dumb fucking kids” before the man shuffles away into the crowd. 

“Hey now,” Rio says with a smile. 

Beth takes him in. His eyes are somewhat glassy and pink around the edges. Tipsy or high, maybe a combination of both. The black t-shirt he’s wearing stretches across his toned chest. His usual nose stud shines in the dim lighting of the bar, and his silver chain dangles around his neck.

Beth wants to throttle him with his own necklace. 

“Why are you here?”

“Heard this was where the party’s at,” Rio replies coolly, letting his eyes drift down from her face. When he sees her full outfit he sucks in a breath. “Turns out the intel was good.” 

“Well we’re leaving soon, so,” Beth lies. 

“Don’t look that way,” Rio says, jerking his head toward the group of sexually frustrated male and female soccer players. He leans in until his lips brush the shell of her ear. “You look so fuckin’ good, mami.” 

Beth exhales shakily and is grateful that the low lighting hides her pink cheeks. His scent encompasses her, and she’s reminded of how close she was to kissing him the day she stole his keys. 

“Can you just leave me alone,” Beth hisses. 

Rio shakes his head. “Let me get you a drink. You’ve had a rough day, yeah?”

The bartender finally makes his way to Beth, looking flushed and frazzled by the unexpected crowd. 

“What can I get y’all?” he asks hurriedly. 

Before her brain can catch up Beth is speaking. “I’ll have a bourbon, top shelf. He’s paying.” 

“Lady, we don’t got top shelf bourbon here.”

Rio bursts out laughing beside her, and Beth can’t help but crack a smile. 

A minute later two bourbons are placed in front of them, and Rio pays with a twenty, telling the guy to keep the change. The tension now broken, Rio raises his glass.

“To your aim,” he says, his lips quirking. “Was one hell of a goal.” 

They clink glasses and throw back the liquor. It burns Beth’s throat, but it’s just what she needs. 

“We should be toasting to you,” Beth mutters, becoming angry just thinking about it, “you scored a hattrick.” 

Rio shrugs, as if scoring three goals in one game isn’t a big deal and motions to the bartender for another round. 

“Wasn’t a fair fight, darlin’,” 

Beth’s first instinct is to protest. But the look in his eyes is no longer teasing, but soft, and she also detects a hint of admiration in his tone. 

“Your team is good. Damn good. They lucky to have you.” 

He says it so simply, so matter-of-fact, that Beth is lost for words. 

“Thanks,” she murmurs, low enough that she hopes he doesn’t hear. 

But of course, he does.

“Mhm,” he hums, eyes drifting down her body once more, before slowly coming back up to meet hers.

Beth feels her heart speed up, as it always does whenever his gaze is fixated on her - as if she’s the only person in the room. Dean certainly never looked at her like that, and he claimed to love her. 

Speaking of Dean, Beth scans the bar, scowling when she sees him lurking in a corner, bitterly chugging his drink. 

“Just wish I could have scored one more time on that douchebag,” Beth growls, narrowing her eyes. 

Rio throws his head back and laughs. It catches the attention of Dean, who snaps his head in their direction. His grip on his drink tightens at the sight of them together, and Beth wonders if it’ll shatter in his hand. 

“Me too,” he says, still chuckling, “Can’t wait for him to graduate soon.” 

Beth turns to Rio in shock. She’d never heard him speak poorly of anyone on his team before. She was under the assumption that Rio and Dean must be friends since they’ve played together for so many years. 

“You don’t like him?”

“Nah,”

“Why?” 

Rio levels her with a look, it’s almost exasperated. 

“Cuz he had what I wanted,” he says flatly; as if she should’ve known this all along. Then his voice softens, and she can barely hear him above the music, “what I still want.” 

Beth sputters. “I… you... That was a long time ago.” She flushes to the roots of her hair, and desperately avoids his gaze. Instead, taking a long sip of her fresh drink, pushing back memories of the first time she’d met Rio three years ago.

_ Yo, it’s Elizabeth, yeah? _

_ Just Beth, actually. _

_ Nah, Imma call you Elizabeth. _

Rio groans, scrubbing his hand down his face. 

“You still don’t get it, do you?” 

Indignation rises through her chest. He’s acting as if  _ she’s  _ the crazy one. What was there to  _ get?  _

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Beth replies angrily, “but what I  _ do  _ know is you’re constantly annoying me, you always try and pick a fight. I seriously can’t  _ stand-” _

Beth yelps as Rio cuts her off by taking her wrist and pulling her away from the bar. He drags her into a back hallway, and Beth has to jog to keep up with his furious strides. 

She roughly shakes her hand out of his iron grip, shoving at his solid chest. 

“What are you  _ doing?” _

The music from the bar continues to thump loudly but is now dulled. From around the corner, she can hear the animated chatter of the patrons, the crashing of a beer glass… 

“You know what I can’t stand, darlin’?” Rio starts, stalking toward her until her back hits the brick wall, “How fuckin’ blind you are.” 

“What are-”

“No,” Rio snaps, snaking his large hands around her upper arms. “You shut up for once. A’ight? And just listen,” Beth’s so stunned by his angry tone that she actually shuts her mouth, Rio sighs. “Why do you think I show up at the crack of fuckin’ dawn on a  _ Sunday  _ to go to the weight room? Why do you think I told all my boys that I’d beat the shit out of them if they snitched on you?”

Beth’s jaw drops. She wants to say something,  _ anything _ , but no words come out. Rio shakes her a bit and lets out a humorless laugh. 

“Elizabeth. I want you. So fuckin’ bad. I can barely slee-”

It’s Beth’s turn to shut him up. She yanks out of his grip and lunges forward, jumping up and throwing her arms around his neck. His lips barely move when she kisses him, and for one, gut-wrenching second, she thinks she misunderstood what he’d said. 

But then he’s kissing her back, jerking her flush against his chest. His hands waste no time travelling down her hips and squeezing her ass over the tight denim skirt. 

She’s never been kissed like this - wild, unhinged and  _ desperate _ . And she’s just as desperate as him, moaning around his lips and tongue. Her hands paw at his chest, the overwhelming desire to touch him is too great. She’d been dreaming about getting her hands on his miles of tan, muscular, skin, but never thought it would actually happen. 

Beth yelps as he roughly palms the backs of her thighs, easily lifting her up over his hips. It barely registers that they’re moving until her back hits a door, and Rio adjusts his grip on her to fumble with the doorknob. 

Thankfully the bathroom is unoccupied, and they tumble inside. 

Their lips break apart for a moment. Their breaths coming in heavy pants as they stare at each other. Rio slowly sets her down on the floor, and Beth’s never felt so dizzy.

For once Rio has nothing to say.

Neither does Beth.

Instead, she reaches around him and turns the lock on the door. 

Rio surges forward, pulling her to him once more. His kisses are needy yet soft, and he trails his lips down her neck, lightly sucking at her pulse. Beth can’t help the groan that spills from her mouth. 

She lets him cup her heaving breasts, and he doesn’t wait for permission to yank down the fabric, revealing her black lace bra. 

“Don’t stop,” she whimpers, clinging to him as if he could disappear at any second. 

“Fuck,” he growls, ghosting his palms over her shoulders and pulling down her thin straps. 

When he finally sees her bare chest for the first time he groans, immediately diving down to suck a pebbled nipple into his mouth. 

“Only ever seen these in those ugly sports bras,” he complains against her skin, letting his thumb drag up and tweak a nipple. “Wasn’t fair.” 

“They’re not -  _ oh - _ they’re not that ugly,” Beth protests weakly, tugging at his shirt. “Take this off.” 

Rio complies, pulling away just long enough to rip his shirt over his head and toss it on the counter to join Beth’s bra. Her tank top still bunched around her waist. 

“Shit, mami,” Rio breathes as he takes in her flushed state. “You drive me so fuckin’ crazy. You know that? Always mouthin’ off and bein’ such a little brat.” 

Beth’s mouth goes dry as he falls to his knees on the bathroom floor, toying with the short hem of her skirt before yanking it up and over her hips. A deep red blush rises to her cheeks as she feels her arousal seep out of her and into her panties. 

Rio wastes no time swiping a finger over the wet fabric, stopping to press firmly on her clit. 

Beth leans back against the counter for support, unable to look away at the kneeling Rio. 

He hooks his fingers into the waistband of her panties, nearly ripping them down her legs. They dangle pathetically around her right ankle, and she gasps as Rio lifts her thigh over his shoulder. 

Getting eaten out by Rio in a dirty bar bathroom wasn’t exactly what Beth had in mind when she’d arrived. 

But it doesn’t mean she hadn’t dreamt about being in a similar position, and she tells him so.

“I’ve dreamt about this,” she sighs.

Rio pulls away from her clit, cursing at her admission. 

“Fuck. Tell me about it,” 

Beth groans as he nibbles on the inside of her thigh, before kissing his way back to her aching pussy. His licks are gentle against her clit, and he uses two fingers to push inside her. 

“We were… in the locker room,” Beth moans, hand coming to grip the back of his cropped head. “Just us. And you pulled off my towel.” 

She throws her head back in pleasure as he adds a third finger, the pressure on her clit becoming firmer. Her body’s already on pins and needles, and she feels the familiar sensation of climbing a very high peak. 

“Keep goin’,” he growls into her core. 

“And then… then you bent me over and… and...  _ Oh, fuck!”  _

A strangled cry rips from her lips as she comes, her head falling against the mirror with a dull thud. She doesn’t even register the pain. 

Rio quickly rises, wiping his lips with the back of his hand, and staring at her with those impossibly dark eyes. Beth’s chest heaves, her legs as wobbly as a newborn fawn. The intensity of the orgasm leaving her completely shaken. 

He leans in, firmly kissing her parted lips, and she tastes herself on his tongue. 

Suddenly Rio’s hands are at her waist, roughly spinning her around to face the bathroom sink. Beth yelps, grabbing onto the edge of the counter to steady herself. Her skin erupts in goosebumps as his palm glides over her back and between her shoulder blades, pushing her down into the sink. 

“Bent you over like this?” he murmurs into her ear. 

Shivers run down her spine, and she manages to croak out a weak  _ yes _ . 

His big hand squeezes harshly at her round ass cheeks, and she hears his zipper being pulled down. 

“W-wait,” she stutters, meeting his gaze in the mirror. His eyes fill with concern, and Beth isn’t ready to unpack all the emotion in his eyes, “Do you have a condom?” 

Rio releases a breath, chuckling. “Course,” 

Beth bristles, “Course? Do you mean you were expecti-  _ ah! _ ”

Her ass stings from the impact of his open palm, and she glares at his reflection. 

He grins wolfishly, landing another smack to the opposite cheek. 

“Hey!”

“That was for stealin’ my clothes,” he mutters. 

A small smirk settles on Beth’s lips, but then he’s pulling her hair back until her head is against his shoulder, gently settling his hand on her neck and squeezing lightly. He kisses her, this time it’s slow, full of promise. 

Beth’s breathless by the time he releases her. She spins to face him, lifting herself up on the counter. 

“I wanna see you,” she says, trying to be as bold as she is normally. 

Rio curses again, shucking off his boxer briefs and rolling on the condom. 

Beth’s cheeks turn crimson as she remembers the first time she’d seen him naked in the locker room, her arms full of his clothes. 

He hadn’t even been hard then, and was still impressive.

But now his cock is at full attention, nudging between her parted thighs. She instinctively wraps her thighs around his waist, yanking him in closer. He presses his hips forward to hers, breathing heavily as he pushes in, inch by inch. 

Beth bites her lip as he bottoms out, fully sheathed inside her warmth. 

“God yes,” she sighs, clutching at his muscular shoulders. “Fuck me, now,” 

If he’s surprised by her boldness Rio doesn’t show it, just does as she’d ordered. He pulls out and slams back in, making them both cry out. He sets a brutal pace, pounding into her steadily, his hands firm on her hips. 

It’s so much better than her dreams. He’s able to reach the perfect spot inside her, and Beth simply holds on for dear life as he  _ rails  _ her. She can barely say a word, the only sounds coming from her mouth desperate whimpers and moans. 

Rio’s not that much better off, he whispers her name in her ear, followed by a string of curses as he tries not to come. 

Beth could take pity on him, tell him it’s okay to come, since she’d already finished once. But she’s greedy, and desperately wants more.

“Please don’t stop,” she manages to whine, biting into his shoulder. 

Rio readjusts his grip so his palms grip her ass cheeks, driving into her with renewed vigor. 

She’s going to come soon, she realizes with a shock. And she’s going to come without touching her clit. 

“Oh, my G…” 

Beth lets out a silent scream as she orgasms for the second time that night, her pussy clenching around Rio’s pulsing length.

“Shit, mami. I’m gonna come,” Rio groans into her neck, “so fuckin’ tight.” 

A moment later Rio’s body goes tense as he gasps a short “Lizabeth” into her ear. He spills into the condom, going slack against her sweaty body. 

The only noises Beth can hear are Rio’s heavy pants hot in her ear, along with the dull thud of the bass from the bar. They stay intertwined for a moment, Beth pressing her flushed face into his neck. 

Finally, Rio pulls back, and the weight of what they’d just done comes crashing down. 

“I.. um. I should get back,” Beth stutters, awkwardly hopping down off the counter.

She avoids his gaze as she pulls her panties up and rearranges her skirt. Rio silently hands her the discarded bra, and she sheepishly takes it from him. 

Beth gulps, watching him dress out of the corner of her eye. The spell has been broken, and the past few minutes (how long  _ has  _ it been?) already seem like a dream.

She’d fucked  _ Rio  _ in a bar bathroom. 

Beth briefly wonders if she’s lost her mind. 

“It ain’t polite to stare,” Rio says, breaking her away from her thoughts. 

“Sorry, um,” she gulps, “I’ll go out first.” 

Before she can make it out of the door his hand is on her arm again, pulling her back towards him. Beth gasps as she collides with his chest, and then his palm is sliding up her neck and cupping her cheek. She lets him kiss her slowly, and can’t help but melt into his lips. 

“Ya know,” he murmurs against her mouth, “you never held up your end of the deal.”

“My what?” she asks foggily, searching out his lips again, eyes closed. 

“You’re supposed to apologize, ‘member?” 

Beth’s eyes snap open, and she wrenches away, scowling. 

“God. You are just such an-”

He laughs, tugging her back and planting another firm kiss on her lips. 

How is she supposed to stay angry at him when he kisses her like  _ that _ ?

“I’m just playin’,” he murmurs, “I’m sure you’ll think of another way to apologize, yeah?” 

Beth bristles, rolling her eyes. But she can’t help the smile that creeps across her lips. Rio gestures for her to exit first, leaning back against the counter. He smiles when she looks back, hand on the doorknob. It’s not his usual arrogant grin, but something softer. Beth feels her heart clench. 

By some miracle, there’s no one waiting to use the ladies room, and Beth scurries back toward the bar, patting her hair back into place. 

The scene before her is nothing less than a shitshow. Liquor and beer stain the already crusty floor, patrons wobble on their barstools, and every girl on her team looks absolutely smashed. 

Somehow, Beth feels sober again. 

Annie wobbles up to her, throwing an arm around her shoulders, completely unaware that her sister went missing. 

“My big sister,” Annie moans dramatically, “I love you  _ soooo  _ much.” 

Beth lets Annie drag her away toward the rest of the team. In a moment of clarity, Beth wonders where the hell Ruby went, and does a quick scan of the bar. She spots her best friend in the corner, making out with Stan. 

Next to them are Stacey and Mick.

Beth can’t even judge. The soreness between her legs and the swollen state of her lips a stark reminder of what she’d just done. Nobody seems to notice her disheveled state, too lost in their own cups.

When she spots Rio coming out from the back, slapping hands with one of his teammates, she feels her gut churn. And when he catches her eye from across the bar, her first instinct is to flee.

xxx 

Beth quietly unlocks the door with a soft  _ click _ . There’s no reason for it, even though it’s nearly two in the morning, and Ruby is out god knows where with Stan. 

She steps into the dark apartment, the furniture in her living room faintly illuminated by the moonlight. Sighing, she beelines to the bathroom without turning on any lights. 

When she does flick on the light, she gasps at her reflection, her hand shooting up to cover her mouth in shock. It’s a small miracle no one noticed the hickeys scattered along her neck, disappearing under her tank top. She strips off her shirt, assessing the light marks on her breasts.

It isn’t until she steps in the shower and begins scrubbing her skin she notices the additional hickeys on the inside of her thighs. She whispers a curse, tearing her eyes away. 

Even if she wanted to forget what she’d done, the proof is marked all over her body. 

She’d been genuinely and thoroughly fucked by Rio. 

And she’d orgasmed  _ twice _ . 

Panic begins to bubble in her chest. Was this Rio’s way of messing with her? Did he actually  _ care  _ about her, or was this about claiming a prize? About  _ winning?  _ She’s well aware of his reputation as a player, has never known him to have a girlfriend. 

Meanwhile, Beth can count on one hand how many people she’s slept with. He’d said he’d wanted her, that he could barely sleep, but now that he’d gotten her… 

She can feel her guard pulling up, shielding her mind and heart. One heartbreak is enough for a lifetime, she decides. And she’d be damned if she lets Rio get under her skin. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TELL ME ALL YOUR THOUGHTS!!!!


	6. Week 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beth just can't help herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Sorry for the long-ish wait. I live in an area that was greatly affected by a winter storm and my power got knocked out for a little bit. Enjoy!

_ Sunday, August 20th  _

Beth would’ve bet money that Rio wouldn’t show up to the weight room at 6:30 in the morning. She also would’ve bet more money that no girl from her team would show up for the optional workout either.

She was wrong on both accounts. 

Grunting, she pushes up for her last rep of squats. She releases the thirty-pound kettlebell with a sigh, letting it plop down to the floor. Her quads burn fiercely, and she shakes them out tiredly. 

“Now that view is worth wakin’ up for,” a familiar voice drawls from behind her. 

Beth jumps, spinning around to face Rio leaning against the door, as he always does. 

She might have chosen a pair of spandex shorts to wear for the workout, in the off-chance that Rio  _ did  _ show up. His eyes travel appreciatively down her body, lingering on her bare legs. 

“Why are you here?” Beth asks, attempting to sound neutral, unconcerned that he’d shown up looking even better than she’d remembered. 

He shrugs. “Need to get a workout in. Figured you could use a partner.” 

“Oh yeah?” Beth asks, fighting a smile, “And why’s that?”

Rio takes a step closer, uncrossing his arms. 

“To help you with your form and whatnot. Don’t wanna pull somethin’,” 

Beth bristles a bit but knows he’s teasing. She fights back a blush, remembering that she’d promised herself not to get any further into bed with Rio… figuratively and literally. But did he really have to look so  _ fine  _ so early in the morning? Backwards hat, loose tank top and all? 

“I’m good, thanks,” she says firmly, but doesn’t miss the flicker of disappointment that flashes across his face. 

“If you change your mind,” Rio shrugs, trailing off. 

They work out in silence, Rio warming up on the treadmill for fifteen minutes - not that Beth’s keeping track- while she does another set of squats. 

She sees him out of the corner of her eye saunter over to the pull-up bar, barely needing to jump to get a grip on it. He easily completes ten pull-ups. Beth watches his arm muscles stretch and flex in the reflection of the mirror. 

Beads of sweat have formed on his forehead. Beth’s mouth goes dry as he uses the bottom of his tank top to wipe at his brow, revealing his toned, tanned stomach. She tears her eyes away before he can catch her staring. 

Focusing on her workout turns out to be much harder than expected. She’s two minutes into a three-minute plank when she glances up, seeing not only her own reflection in the mirror but also Rio’s. He’s not so subtly staring at her ass from across the room, jaw gone slack. She wonders if he’s been gawking the entire two minutes. 

As much as she wants to be annoyed, Beth can’t help but feel smug by the pull she has over him. Smiling to herself, she puts her head back down, adjusts her plank position on her tippy toes, lets her butt jiggle a bit, and is rewarded by a sharp intake of breath from behind her. 

The last minute goes by quickly, and she plops down on her stomach, giving her aching muscles a rest. She peeks over her shoulder, and is disappointed to find that Rio has moved on to the bench press. 

Beth shakes her head, she’s there for a workout - nothing else. 

But it just so happens that the dumbbells are over by the bench presses, and she can’t do her lounges without weights. She saunters over to the weight rack, hyper-aware of Rio’s dark eyes on her as she moves. She cocks a hip out and glances down at the dumbbells, pretending to consider how much weight she wants to use. 

After a moment of faux-pondering, she selects two twenty pound dumbbells and makes her way back to her spot by the mirrors. 

The lunges burn her thighs and butt fiercely - so fierce she forgets that Rio is watching her, her mind focusing solely on the pain. 

So it’s surprising to her when she finishes her first set and sees Rio’s angry expression in the mirror. 

“Are you tryna kill me, darlin’?” Rio rasps, glaring at her as if she’d personally offended him. 

“What?” she asks coldly, bending over purposefully to set the weights on the ground and turning to face him. 

Rio stares at her. 

“You come in here, lookin’ fine as fuck, doin’ your squats and shit in those lil shorts,” Rio gulps, eyes flickering down to her legs, “and givin’ me that badass attitude.” 

He approaches her slowly, as if she could bolt at any second. His pupils are blown wide by the time he steps into her space, crowding her against the mirror. Beth sucks in a breath, peering up at him through her lashes. 

She can feel her resolve crumble the instant they lock eyes. The mirror is cool against her sweaty back, her palms twitch to reach out and explore under his shirt, and then lower. 

She wants to push him away, remind herself who she is, who  _ he  _ is, but instead - 

“I knew you’d like the shorts.” 

Not even half a second passes before his lips are on hers, hungry and demanding. As if possessed, her hands immediately slide under his tank top, pressing against his firm abs. His big hand slides around her neck to cup her head under her high ponytail, fingers twisting in the loose strands of hair. A strong arm wraps around her waist, pulling her flush against him. 

His stomach is slick with sweat, and she can’t help but slide her hands up to his chest. She gasps as his tongue swipes against her bottom lip, and she opens her mouth more to let him taste her. 

Their sweaty bodies stick together, his hardness pressing against her stomach through his gym shorts. She shamelessly grinds further into him, her cunt fluttering, eager to have him inside again. 

Rio’s hands are relentless, roughly pulling at her ponytail and squeezing her thighs and ass. Their lips never break apart, not until Rio spins her around to face the mirror. He immediately latches onto her neck, sucking over a faded hickey from the other night. 

Beth groans, arching her back into him, purposefully dragging her ass over his erection. 

Two long fingers press firmly against her center, rubbing over the spandex shorts. A bead of sweat drips off Beth’s forehead and onto the floor. The AC in the weight room had been fixed days ago, but it felt like a thousand degrees. 

Rio drops suddenly to his knees, yanking her shorts and thong down with him. Beth gasps as she feels his breath against her bare ass cheek, and yelps when he bites down. He grins against her skin, pulling back a bit to lightly suck on the sore spot that would surely bruise the next day. A groan escapes his lips as he squeezes a handful of ass. 

If it was anyone but Rio, Beth would feel embarrassed having a man between her legs post-workout (technically mid-workout, since she hadn’t finished yet). But all thoughts of decency are nowhere to be found, and Beth juts her hips out into Rio’s face, her breasts squishing against the mirror. The coolness against her cheek is a stark contrast to her flushed skin, and she yelps when he swipes his tongue up her folds. 

“Watch,” he rasps, quickly standing, taking her ponytail in his fist and yanking her head back away from the mirror. 

Beth lets out a shaky breath, hears Rio use his free hand to release himself from his boxers, watches his dark eyes fill with lust and concentration as he rolls on a condom he’d pulled from his pocket.

“Do you carry condoms with you everywhere?” Beth breathes, huffing out a laugh.

Rio meets her eyes in the mirror and grins sharply. Beth’s cheek flush even further, and he playfully tugs on her hair. 

“Jus’ for you, baby.” 

He thrusts into her without warning, both letting out strangled moans in sync. Rio’s hand falls from her ponytail to join his other hand down at her hips. He buries his face in her neck, lets her get adjusted to him. 

“Keep going,” Beth chokes out, pressing her sweaty palms against the mirror. 

Rio’s grip on her hips is bruising, his fingers sinking into her soft flesh as he begins to pound harder and harder until Beth is crying out in pleasure. Her words, a mixture of his name,  _ don’t stop _ and  _ harder _ , fall from her lips like a prayer.

She pushes her hips back to eagerly meet his every thrust, her head falling back to rest against his shoulder, eyes closed in bliss. 

“I said  _ watch _ ,” he grunts from behind her, cupping her head and pushing it back up so their eyes meet in the mirror once again. 

It’s a small consolation that Rio looks just as wrecked as her, his mouth hanging open obscenely, sweat trickling down his forehead.

And Beth watches, transfixed by their reflections. She’s never seen herself look so turned on, so  _ sexy _ . Each thrust sends tingles down her spine, his cock hitting the same sweet spot over and over again. Her breasts threaten to spill over the top of her sports bra, and the faded hickeys from the other night are on full display. 

Rio must be getting close, his hips snapping more and more erratically against hers. His fingers dance along her skin and around her hip, dipping against her clit. With a few skilful swipes, Beth comes hard, throwing her head back once more against Rio’s shoulder. 

Seeing her orgasming reflection, Rio can’t hold on any longer, and he whispers her name as he finishes. 

He wraps his strong arms around her belly, pressing his face in her neck as he inhales. Beth welcomes his embrace, leaning back against him, his cock still buried inside her. They both moan when he pulls out. 

She watches silently in the mirror as he peels off the condom and readjusts his pants. Beth does the same, pulling her panties and shorts back up. Leaning back against the mirror, she takes a few deep breaths while Rio tosses the condom in a nearby bin. She wants to tell him to wrap it up in a hundred paper towels first, so there’s no evidence, but her voice fails her. 

He stalks back over to her, cupping her face in his big hands and kissing her firmly. 

“Wanna take a shower?” he murmurs against her lips. 

Beth can only nod. 

xxx 

Annie curses as she trips over her untied shoelaces, stumbling into the door of the locker room. It was seven in the morning, a bit late for Beth’s “optional workout” but hey, at least she’d finally  _ showed up  _ to one. All she had to do was drop her bag in her locker, tie her shoes, and scurry over to the weight room. Sure, Beth would be annoyed by her lateness, but Annie knew for a  _ fact  _ that no one on the team had  _ ever _ shown up to the Sunday morning hell workout.

She’d actually gone to bed at two in the morning, a decent hour! Beth should be  _ impressed. _

Whistling something that resembles a song from a Tik Tok she’d heard, Annie cheerfully makes her way to her locker. She tosses her bag in and sits down on the bench to tie her shoes. 

That’s when she hears it. 

The hairs on her arms stand up in attention, and Annie strains her ears. It sounds like a  _ moan _ , and Annie gasps as she hears it again over the faint sound of a shower running. How had she not noticed the sound of the water? 

_ Huh, _ she thinks, chewing her bottom lip. She looks around the empty locker room. There’s no sign that anyone else is here. 

Annie gasps again, maybe it was the boy’s playing a prank?  _ Defiling  _ their sacred locker room?! She considers running down the hall to the weight room to grab Beth, but by the time they return the perpetrator might be gone. 

She squares her shoulders and stands up. No - she had to protect the girls’ space and honor. Plus, Beth would be  _ so  _ proud when she apprehends the perp.

Slowly, Annie tiptoes toward the back showers. Indeed, the water is running and there’s a slight humidity in the air. Unlike the boy’s locker room, the girls have separate showers with curtains protecting their privacy. 

Another moan fills the air, and it sounds feminine, but Annie has no time for further investigation. On the floor next to the shower, there’s a pair of  _ boxers!  _

She jumps to action, ripping open the curtain with a triumphant  _ ah-hah!  _ Ready for the most epic  _ gotcha  _ moment in history. 

To say her jaw drops to the floor is an understatement when Annie finally takes in the scene before her. 

There, on his knees on the tile of the shower-  _ butt ass naked-  _ is a familiar back, shaved head and distinctive bar tattoos running down the backs of his biceps. Pinned against the wall is her  _ naked  _ sister, wet head thrown back in ecstasy. 

All Annie can do is point and scream, her feet completely rooted to the ground. 

Rio pulls away from between Beth’s legs and glances back at her in confusion, lips wet, and Annie thinks she might die of shock. Beth’s eyes snap open in horror, and then  _ she’s  _ screaming too. 

“Oh my god, get out!” Beth screeches, snapping her arms over her chest as if Annie hasn’t seen her boobs a thousand times. 

“ _ Ahhh!!!”  _ Annie shrieks, covering her eyes, “ _ Ahh fuck!”  _

“Annie get the fuck out!” 

“ _ I’m trying _ …” 

Annie throws a hand over her eyes and stumbles back, only to once again step on her untied shoelace. Yelping, she trips and falls flat on her ass, using her feet to push back and reverse crab walk away from the shower. 

She can hear Rio’s loud laugh echo through the locker room, followed by Beth’s outraged shrieks. 

It’s not until she’s sprinting down the hill away from the athletics facility that she feels the dull ache on her bruised butt. 

She slows upon reaching the bottom, hunched over and breathing heavily, sweat dripping from her forehead. Annie’s not sure whether to laugh, cry or scream again. Because she’d just witnessed Rio eating her sister’s pussy like it was his last meal on death row. 

Taking one last deep breath, she forces one foot in front of the other, ready to curl up in her dorm bed and be traumatized for the next year. 

Only her foot gets caught in her shoelaces again, and she falls on her face. 

xxx 

Rio’s still laughing even as they get dressed. 

“Will you shut up!” Beth hisses, pulling a clean shirt out of her gym bag. 

“It’s just too good, ma,” Rio huffs, already dressed in his fresh clothes, keenly watching Beth change. He smirks, “you think she’s gonna give Gregg some tips later?” 

“Ugh, God!” Beth yells, throwing her sweaty top at him, “They are  _ not  _ having sex!” 

Rio easily catches the shirt, folding it neatly on his lap. He contemplates Beth with a grin.

“My boy hits that every night in his twin bed,” Rio says cockily, raising his eyebrows. 

Beth groans in frustration, leans over, and slaps him upside the head, pursing her lips. 

“Don’t talk about my sister like that,” 

He raises his hands in surrender. “Jus’ thought you should know, darlin’,” 

“Whatever,” Beth grumbles. Obviously, she knew that Annie was sneaking around with Gregg, she just didn’t want to admit it. 

It seems like all her girls had been infected with some sort of sex pollen. Annie, Ruby, Stacey… (well Stacey wasn’t the least bit surprising.) 

Beth grimaces at the thought, combing through her wet hair. A couple droplets of water land on her shirt, and she doesn’t miss the way Rio’s eyes fall to her chest. He licks his lips distractingly. 

“You hungry?” he asks suddenly. 

“I can eat,” Beth agrees easily, then, “but you just did.” 

The shock on Rio’s face is enough to make her bark out a laugh. She rarely ever flirted back, and when she did it always caught him off guard. She feels a sense of victory wash over her. 

Rio’s mouth pulls into a grin as he watches her laugh. He shakes his head a bit, chuckling to himself. 

“Best meal I’ve ever had,” he says, getting up off the bench and stalking over to her. They move backwards together until he has her pressed against the lockers, “In fact, I could go for more.” 

Beth laughs breathlessly, shoving at his chest. 

“I don’t want another audience,” Beth murmurs, “In fact, no one can know about this, okay? I already texted Annie to keep her mouth shut.” 

_ Say a word and I will kill you!!!  _ is exactly what she’d typed out, followed by several emojis with the eyes crossed out. 

Rio rolls his eyes and shrugs.

“Whatever you say, mami. Let’s go get breakfast, yeah?” 

“You wanna go out to eat together?”

“Why not?”

“Cuz I  _ just  _ said no one can know!” 

“It’s not even eight on a Sunday and we on a college campus. Everyone’s still asleep.” 

Beth’s stomach grumbles. He has a point. 

xxx 

Three days ago if someone had told Beth she’d be at Einstein Bro’s bagels, having breakfast with Rio, she’d have laughed in their face. Or maybe punched them in their face. Either way, the shock sets in when he tells her to go find a table and pulls out his wallet. The restaurant is nearly empty, there’s an elderly couple seated by the windows and a stressed-out nerdy kid in glasses in the corner, huddled around his laptop. 

Beth watches in shock as Rio pays the cashier before she can even protest. He gives her an annoyed look and juts his chin out toward the dining room. Beth clears her throat, spinning on her heel and choosing a secluded booth in the back. Even if someone she knows comes in, they probably won’t notice. 

Rio comes over a few minutes later with their orders. A hazelnut latte and avocado, egg bagel for Beth, and a black coffee with a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for Rio. 

She grabs her sweet coffee and takes a long sip, savoring the flavor. 

“I don’t know how you can drink that sugary shit,” Rio grumbles, drinking his nasty, black coffee. 

Beth scowls. “You get black coffee. What are you, fifty years old?” 

“Maybe. Only if you’re into older men.” 

She can’t help but laugh. She has to give it to him, he always has something quick to say. Most boys’ her age have the humor of pre-teens. Too many times she’d heard the same “Your Mom” jokes from Dean and his dumbass friends. As a freshman, she’d forced herself to laugh along, wanting to impress the older crowd. Now, she just rolls her eyes at their immaturity. 

Beth takes a huge bite of her bagel, forgetting that Rio’s sitting across from her. She groans in satisfaction, licking a bit of egg at the corner of her mouth. When she looks up Rio is staring at her, and she blushes red. She hasn’t been on a date in so long, she’d forgotten that she’s supposed to eat daintily. 

Her eyes widen.  _ Is this a date?  _

“Sorry,” she mumbles, wiping at her mouth with a tissue. 

Rio shrugs, but he has that  _ look  _ again. Like he wants to devour her whole. Beth stares back at him. Is he really turned on by her eating? For once Rio tears his eyes away first, and takes an equally big bite of his sandwich. 

It’s awkward for a moment - the silence, the tension. Since they’re not arguing or fucking, what’s there to say? Beth can feel her heart start to pound. Luckily, her phone chimes. She quickly checks her messages. It’s from Annie. 

_ You have some explaining to do u big slut _

She sighs, placing the phone down on the table. By now Annie must have told at least Ruby the news. 

“What?” Rio asks. 

“Just Annie.” 

The silence continues. She’s about to open her mouth to say something, say  _ anything _ , but then Rio speaks. 

“Wanna see somethin’ cool?” he asks, fishing his phone out of his pocket. 

Beth nods, suddenly intrigued, she sets her sandwich down and takes his phone. He’d pulled up a YouTube video. It’s from the Orlando Pride Women's soccer team scrimmage last week. She presses play, and watches as Alex Morgan sprints down the center of the pitch. The cross from the far side of the field is a bit off, just a step behind her, but then she throws her body backwards, bicycle-kicking the ball into the corner of the opposing team’s net. It’s a spectacular goal, and Beth can’t help but rewatch. 

“Fuckin’ dope, right?” Rio asks with a grin. 

“Yeah,” Beth says, studying the video again, “I didn’t know you followed women's soccer.” 

He shrugs. “I watch all soccer when I have the time.” 

“That’s really cool,” Beth says, handing the phone back over. 

“Thought maybe since you got diving headers down, you could move on to bicycle kicks,” Rio says.

Beth blushes, shrugging. “That header was all luck. I doubt I could do it again if I wanted to.” 

Rio shakes his head. “Nah. That was skilful as fuck. I doubt half the guys on my team could do that.” 

“Yeah?” Beth gives him a small smile. “Are you saying I’m better than half of them?” 

Rio laughs, loudly. “Yeah. When you faked out Eddie? That shit had me dyin’. He damn near broke his ankles.” 

They continue to talk animatedly about the scrimmage, and not in the bitter way Beth expected. Rio makes some really interesting points about each of her players. She’d thought he was barely paying attention during the game, not taking it seriously. But his observations are on point, and she starts to take notes on her phone. 

The way he speaks about soccer with so much passion has Beth’s head spinning. He’s always so coy, so casual. To her, it seemed like soccer was just a hobby for him. She learns that he takes his captain duties very seriously, and if any player shows up late to practice they have to run laps for an hour. 

“And what about me?” she asks, draining the last of her latte, “What do I need to improve on?” 

Rio raises his eyebrows. “This a trick question?” 

“No,” Beth says, “I mean it.” 

He thinks for a moment. 

“You telegraph your passes. I could always tell where you were gonna kick it. You gotta look around more, fake ‘em out with your eyes, ya know?”

Beth nods slowly, taking in that information. She’d never been given that feedback before, but he was right. She types that out into her phone as well. 

“Thanks,” she murmurs, suddenly feeling quite hot as Rio’s intense gaze lands on her. They’d finished eating almost an hour ago, and more people had trickled into the restaurant. “We should get going.”

Rio looks almost disappointed, but recovers quickly. 

“Yeah.” 

They slide out of the booth, and Rio actually holds the door open for her. When they both step out into the warm summer air there’s a beat of awkwardness. 

“Well, I live that way, by the Dominos…” Beth trails off, gesturing weakly down the block. The men’s soccer house isn’t far, but it’s in the opposite direction. 

“I’ll walk with you,” he says, like it’s the simplest thing in the world. 

Beth wants to protest, what if someone  _ sees _ them? But he’d just paid for her breakfast, and given her two incredible orgasms. So she figures there’s no harm in him walking her home. 

They walk in comfortable silence for a bit, until Rio starts a debate about who’s the best soccer player - Messi or Ronaldo. They bicker back and forth, and it turns out Rio is a huge Barcelona fan. Beth realizes that Rio could probably talk soccer for hours - professional or college level. 

She’s actually disappointed when they arrive at her apartment building. 

“I’m on the third floor and there’s no elevator so…”

“K. Let’s go.” 

For a moment she panics, wondering if he wants to come inside her apartment and…  _ hang out _ . But her nervousness is quickly squashed when they get to her door and he kisses her cheek, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. 

“Text me, yeah?” he says. 

Beth smiles and nods. They’d finally exchanged numbers at breakfast. But she has no intention of texting him  _ first _ . 

Twenty minutes later she’s freshly showered and curled up in bed, hair wrapped in a towel. Her body aches, and not from the workout. She stares at her ceiling, thinking about Rio, about his hands all over her. 

Then her phone chimes. She launches herself at it, quickly unlocking it. There’s a message from Rio, and she can’t help the stupid smile that lights up her face. 

_Come to mine tomorrow night?_ _Don’t worry I”ll sneak u in_

It’s not exactly romantic, but Beth can’t help the thrill that shoots up her spine. 

She texts back a simple:

_ Yes  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These two are just obsessed with each other aren't they?! I'm on tumblr at @wakeupflawless if you wanna chat.   
> Also thanks to Jade for proof-reading!


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